The reverse immigrant

If there's one piece of advice Fergus Duffy would give to anyone planning to go to Euro 2012, it is this: go easy on the vodka! Compared to Irish prices, alcohol is alarmingly cheap in Poland. A bottle of the spirit can be obtained for €4, or even less - and at such prices, the temptation is strong. Not that the Kells man would want to discourage Irish soccer supporters from sampling native Polish food and drink; he recommends just the opposite, as long as it is in moderation. Despite a population of over a million, the city where Fergus lives, Cracow, wasn't chosen as one of the venues for Euro 2012, although England will be based there. The city is expecting an influx of up to 100,000 people over the next few weeks. Some are sure to be Irish, although most will be heading for Poznan, a four-hour train journey away. Fergus Duffy has lived in Cracow for four years now and he loves the place. In fact, he loves Poland full-stop. "The biggest reason we came here was because of the quality of life, and it is excellent, it really is. Everything is open to you. You get in the car and travel to the Czech Republic or go to the mountains or go to the lakes, which we do every weekend," he told the Meath Chronicle this week. "We have Sky TV, but the Irish culture of the remote control and the few pints at the weekend, the Chinese meal; it's different here. It's on the bike, out to the mountains. "Every weekend, we go out to the country for barbecues if the weather is good, or skiing. It's not about sitting down and watching 'Britain's Got Talent on TV'." Not that Duffy (40) wants to denigrate his own country or the way of life there. It's simply that he has found in his adopted country an alternative that he enjoys. "I'm not running Ireland down, I would never run it down. We wanted something different and that's what we got. We drove across to Spain once - everything is open to you. The only fault of Ireland, if it is a fault, is it is an island so it's a big deal to go anywhere or do anything." Not that it's all sunshine and light in Poland. Bureaucracy is still a big part of life in the country, a legacy of the Communist era. Duffy found that out the hard way. It can be particularly daunting for a foreigner looking to do something like start a new business, even for someone from another EU state. Anyone who wants to start a business in Poland, he stresses, must possess a lot of tenacity and a liking for form-filling. And social welfare is practically non-existent. Yet the positives of life in the country far outweigh the negatives. The Kells man can clearly recall the day when he knew for sure he wanted to live in Cracow, or Krakow, as it is also known. It was winter time and he was on first visit to Poland with his girlfriend, Renata, who is from the city. Duffy talks of that day as if it was an epiphany, a moment when his life took a sudden and sharp change in direction. "The first time I came to Cracow, it was in the middle of winter. It was just after Christmas and I walked off into the city centre and I saw these huge, enclosed, beautiful pedestrian-friendly streets in and around the city centre. I walked on Florianska Street to what they call the gates of Cracow. "I walked onto the market square and everything just stood still for me, time stood still. I just fell in love with the city there and then. "The hairs still stand up on the back of my neck thinking about it. Visually, with the horses, the feathers over their heads, the carriages, the snow was up to my knees, the city centre was fully decked out for Christmas and that was it. I looked at Renata and said 'this is it. That will do. This is where we have to be'." And apart from occasional trips to other countries on the continent, or back home to his native Kells, Duffy has spent the last four years living in Cracow with Renata, where they live with their 16 month-old son, Nicholas Victor Duffy, and Dominic, Renata's son from a previous relationship. Fergus Duffy grew up in Kells and became a barber, having served his time in the business in Navan. "Gerry Barry had a barber's shop in Watergate Street. He was a great teacher and he gave me the education I needed," he recalls. Duffy subsequently started up his own barber's business in Kells. One day, while working out in a gym in Navan, he met Renata. She was one of many Polish people who had emigrated to Ireland during the Celtic Tiger years. When Duffy first visited Poland on holidays, and found he had a liking for the place, the couple decided to move there. The Meathman at first worked in the hairdressing business in Cracow. Along with a couple of ex-pats, he also got involved in running a pub in the middle of the city. He did this for a year or so before "going corporate," his term for landing a job with technology company, Element 14. He now works as a team leader in the English-speaking marketing and development section of the US firmy. When he first moved to live in Poland, the Meathman had little or no Polish. Once in the country, however, he quickly set about grappling with the language, attending night classes to improve his vocabulary. Now he is confident about going out and about and talking to locals in their own language. He acquired EU Citizenship to allow him to work in Poland. It's a myth, he stresses, that because both Ireland and Poland are members of the broader EU community, acquiring the necessary documents to work in either country is easy. It's not. A lot bureaucracy has to be endured before the necessary papers are acquired. Duffy went through endless hoops and filled out numerous documents to get the Polish equivalent of a PRSI number. All the effort, while frustrating, was in the end worth it, he added. Poland, he said, can be a country of stunning contrasts. There's the suave sophistication of the moneyed middles class evident in the big cities. Then there's another side. Duffy has regularly seen women behind horses and ploughs in fields in the countryside. He recalls the time when, on a trip up north, he stayed in the equivalent of a B&B. When he asked where the shower facilities were, he was shown a well outside. Poland is like that. A country that never ceases to amaze and intrigue him. Fergus Duffy says he misses family and friends back in Meath, but Poland is home now - and he wouldn't want to be anywhere else.