Poland’s national week of mourning after the death of the country’s president in a plane crash will officially end this Sunday. But the huge pain caused by the loss will take generations to heal.
Last Saturday, President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria and a group of close colleagues and senior political and military officials were on their way to the Russian village of Katyn to honour the several thousand Poles murdered there by the Soviet Army in 1940, when their plane went down close to the nearby town of Smolensk.
Poles across the world have been dumbfounded over the tragedy. Days after the president’s body was identified and returned to his homeland for burial, many Polish people in Ireland can scarcely believe what happened.
“It’s a great shock, unbelievable. It is beyond comprehension. The whole nation is in mourning,” said Timothy Adejumo, a Polish citizen since 2000 who currently lives in Ireland.
“In that single fatal accident, we lost the president, his wife, the governor of the Central Bank of Poland, the chiefs of the army staff, naval forces and air force, 15 members of parliament, three senators, the president of the Olympic committee, the ombudsman, the last Polish President in exile, bishops – 88 of them were the very top echelon of public officials in Poland,” added Adejumo, who is originally from Nigeria.
For Marcin Kulik, a Polish man who has lived in Dublin for many years, the sheer human loss is irreparable.
“I look at this tragedy from more human than political perspective,” he said. “The people who died in the crash were very valuable, intelligent and experienced individuals, people of real value, that you can’t replace. I feel very sad for their families and friends.”
Even so, he added that people should view the tragedy like a verse from a Polish song: “If you didn’t know him, do not regret, because you would have lost a good friend like I did.”
The Polish people now hope that their country can emerge from this incident stronger, despite the pessimistic view that the country is repeating a cycle of tragedy.
Adejumo, who lived in Poland for 31 years, said Poles are capable of uniting to overcome adversity, as they have done in the past.
“The Polish nation is very unique in that in the face of calamity, we all come together. All things being equal, we would come out stronger. People are coming out en masse to grieve.”
Kulik noted that while it is difficult to predict the possible direction the country would now take internally, he expects a strengthening of Polish ties with Russia.
“Our relations with Russia will be definitely better now, they are doing a really great job helping us after tragedy,” he said. “The political situation will be tense until the new election, but after that everything should get back to order.
“The Polish National Bank is securing the currency, and I wouldn’t expect any dramatic economic changes. What will come next only time will tell.”
Meanwhile, the Polish Embassy in Dublin has opened a book of condolences in memory of President Kaczynski and the 95 others lost in the Katyn crash. And in Limerick, a book of condolences in honour of the victims of the tragedy will remain open to the public until 5pm on Friday 16 April, according to Limerick County Council.
