Right before exam week I had the pleasure to sit down with Artur Michalski, the chargé d’affaires ad interim of the Republic of Poland in Ireland, making him the highest Polish official in Ireland. Michalski is an experienced diplomat, who learned the craft during his previous postings in Moscow, Washington and Ottawa. He was the Polish ambassador in the Republic of Moldova, and later in Belarus, which he left after relations between Poland and Belarus deteriorated in 2020. He came to Ireland in autumn of 2024, but it didn’t take long for him to adjust. “For Polish people the word ‘Ireland’ has only wonderful associations. And I came here with this conviction, and I wasn’t disappointed. I met many wonderful and earnest people.”
Michalski believes that there is a high level of similarity between Irish and Polish people. The earnestness, hospitality, and kindness he was showed by Irish people reminds him of home. “Of course we are different, we live thousands of kilometres apart. But there are things in our national character that somehow bring us together. Both of our nations have similar historical experiences which gave raise to this love, this longing for freedom which lasted centuries.” He added that what confirmed his view was the response to the invasion of Ukraine. “Both Ireland and Poland stood and stand by Ukraine’s freedom.”
Working with people is one of Michalski’s main goals for his time leading the Polish Embassy. His time in Belarus highlighted how important it is to develop good relations between nations and between people. Governments can change their policies, but nations aren’t as easily swayed. “The importance of connecting with the people of the local country rather than only the government cannot be overstated. I previously worked in a country which cannot be called democratic in any way, an authoritarian country, and maintaining relations between governments is sometimes less important than harbouring good relations between nations, between the people.” Michalski aims to help strengthen those relations, which already have strong foundations – built by the large Polish minority living in Ireland, and stemming from our shared history. “A story which beautifully illustrates our shared history is the story of Constance and Casimir Markievicz” Michalski clarified, later extending an invitation to all students for an exhibition of Casimir’s art at the Dublin Castle which is organised by the Embassy together with the Office of Public Works (OPW) and runs until mid September.
“Perhaps art can express more than words” he added. One challenge he recognised is the level of interest connected to learning about Poland. “It’s natural, of course. Our countries haven’t been that connected culturally or economically.” His remedy? “I believe we should aim to deepen mutual connection. We have many common interests, we understand each other well, we are members of the same community, the community of free European nations, members of the European Union. Both of our countries historically had very strong, rational, and rich relations with the United States and we help this transatlantic connection flourish.”
Michalski circled back a few times to the point which seems very important to him – how similar are the foundations of the Polish and Irish national identity. A quality which he hopes can bring the two nations closer. The significant Polish minority living in Ireland helps facilitate this mutual discovery, but Michalski recognises this process cannot be forced or rushed. “It’s not immediate!” he adds, “All my predecessors and all of my successors have worked and will work on this process of mutual discovery and understanding.”
When asked about what could aid in cementing the ties between Poland and Ireland, Michalski explained a few routes the Embassy is taking. First, he urged Irish people to visit Poland. “There’s plenty of sun there!” he laughed, adding that “no one from Ireland who went to Poland, visited Poland, saw these wonderful old monuments, saw Cracow, saw the modern Warsaw, saw Polish mountains, forests, lakes and the sea, experienced this wonderful diversity of Poland was disappointed.”
His second idea, one important to him, is to bring Polish culture to Ireland, to show the various faces of Polish talent. “At the inauguration of our EU presidency we organised a wonderful concert ‘Chopin and Beyond’ at the Royal Irish Academy of Music showing young artists from Poland and Ireland. It was a special collaboration between Royal Irish Academy of Music and Grażyna & Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Łódź in the spirit of European academic exchange. We aim to deepen the sense of community we have. Of course Chopin was king, because these are absolutely universally moving and immortal sounds.” The Polish Embassy has also worked with the Irish Film Institute, organising a Polish film festival Kinopolis for the 16th time, which saw the Irish premiere of ‘The Girl with the Needle”.
And thirdly, Michalski highlighted the importance of strong academic relations between Polish and Irish institutions. His team is working alongside some Irish universities, including Trinity, to establish degrees with the Polish language. “When we reach out to universities across Ireland, there is a positive response. This shows Poland’s outstanding role not only as Poland, but also as a force within Europe, and the attractiveness of Polish culture. I don’t want to go into too much detail, I hope you will forgive me. These matters aren’t ours alone, but involve many partners. And the last thing I would want is for them to feel pressured.” After some thought, he added, talking about courses with the Polish language, that he “would like to have a richer formula at Trinity, because there is a lot of interest from students, as well as the hosts. We discussed this topic during the recent visit of the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland.”
On the academic front, Poland is also offering student and research exchanges for students in Ireland. Michalski pointed to the National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), which has already worked with Trinity Global, to offer opportunities beyond the Erasmus+ programme. “Their offer is directed both towards students with Polish heritage who know the language and students who just wish to experience Poland. And I’m certain that as more programmes with Polish language are established, this net of academic relations will grow and keep on getting stronger.” He concluded his thoughts about this matter by saying that “We [the Embassy] just try to respond to the interest from students and universities. Everyone stands to gain from this, the need for diplomas with Polish is naturally growing. It’s not something that we’re trying to impose on anyone. We simply find ourselves having converging interests. In fact, our whole work, in general, the essence of diplomacy, is to promote situations where interests converge. This can make or break a project.”
Beyond any doubt, Michalski’s outlook on the future is positive. He is convinced that European prosperity can continue if we work towards it. I asked him to expand on what Poland is doing to further this goal, since assuming EU presidency in January. “A privilege of every country that holds a presidency is to interpret the European priorities according to their understanding” – he responded, and continued by saying “the motto we came up with – Security, Europe! –is not only about military security, though it is crucial. To us, this slogan best describes the current needs of our European continent, and moves us towards deepening the sense of community, the key to measuring up against any future challenges. This is what we here, in Dublin, try to embody as well.” The main challenges he sees ahead of Europe are our security from the east and the need for Europe to provide its own security.
An important element of his work in Ireland is to keep up the awareness of the war in Ukraine. “Perhaps the most striking point, we made by showing a Polish film ‘People’ at the Irish Film Institute. It tells the story of the cruelty of the invasion of Ukraine through the eyes of blind women and children. We mustn’t get used to this war. Even if that’s what usually happens, we cannot get used to this horror.” Michalski also showed some understanding toward the frustration of the US, which found itself having to supplement Europe’s defence capability. “I hope that everyone, not just Dublin or Warsaw, but also Washington and Brussels, will find enough flexibility to find truly beneficial solutions to the rising tensions. In Europe, we don’t fully realize the source of the US frustration, coming from our relatively small input into matters of defence. Perhaps it came from this feeling that we can take some things for granted. Of course Poland is spending 5% of our GDP on defence so it’s a little different for us. And now, all of Europe is moving towards reinforcing our own security, which should ease the US frustration and strengthen the transatlantic unity.”
Michalski is committed to working on all levels to foster good relations between the Republic of Poland and Ireland and between the people of Poland and Ireland. He has presented the priorities of the Polish EU presidency in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he wants to further develop Polish studies in Irish universities, and bring the Polish culture closer to the everyday Irish person. And he is certain, that the best outcomes of his work in Ireland are yet to come.
