High praise as Polish citizens renew their passports in Limerick

THE POLISH community in Limerick is thriving, according to the honorary consul Patrick O’Sullivan.

The Consulate of the Republic of Poland recently invited personnel from the consulate from Dublin down to its offices on O’Connell Street to help process Polish citizens passport renewals to save people having to travel to Dublin. 

“Every few months we have the personnel from the consulate in Dublin come down and they process the passports here,” Mr O’Sullivan, honorary consul for Poland in Limerick, said. 

“We’ve run this two or three times now and it's been very very effective.” 

“We would have about 100 people renewing their passports, their Polish passwords, over the two days.”

“It's very helpful to the Polish people in the community here.” 

“Because up until (we introduced this), Polish citizens had to take a day off work, go up to Dublin and then collect their passports and come back.”

With approximately 10,000 Polish citizens now living in the city and county, the community and their businesses are thriving, according to Mr O’Sullivan. 

“The Polish are very industrious people and they are very hardworking. Like us when we go abroad, we become highly industrious. We start companies and we start businesses.

“We’ve over a hundred Polish enterprises now in and around the city and county, operating everything between building suppliers, painters, contractors, car mechanics, food-suppliers.

“There’s also a great import of Polish food in Limerick right now, you’ll see that by the number of shops that are open. The positive side of this for Limerick is that we have created employment through this. The Polish population rent properties in their hundreds, so that’s very important for our economy as well.”