a really nice article about a new bus route that goes between busáras in dublin and warsaw in poland was in saturdays irish times. apparently 40,000 or so polish people live in ireland!. here is an extract from the article.

all aboard for warsaw bus éireann has begun a daily dublin-warsaw route to cater to the state’s growing polish population. this week carl o’brien joins the passengers at busáras on their two-day journey back home. busáras, dublin, wednesday, 7.55pm as she waits in the queue with her friend for the bus to warsaw , 27-year-old eva robaszkiewicz says she’s the happiest she’s ever been since leaving poland two years ago. “i’m not thinking of leaving,” says eva enthusiastically, who is working as a hotel receptionist in dublin. “it feels more and more like a second home. i came here to experience what you might call ‘the irish dream’: to live life here and earn money. people are so friendly, the taxi drivers are great, people smile a lot. i haven’t met rude people. everyone i know, they’ve had a very positive experience.” the queue of young people, laden with bulging rucksacks and suitcases, is a striking tableau: it’s an image eerily similar to the 1980s, when thousands of the pre-ryanair irish generation made their way from this same building to england and germany in search of work. dublin port, wednesday, 9.30pm the car ferry pulls out of dublin harbour, behind a darkening sky with strange swirls of pink and orange on the horizon. the poles stay away from the expensive bar and canteen, preferring to eat their packed lunches of rolls and fruit. employers in ireland often gasp at the work rate of poles, making sometimes glib comparisons that one polish worker is the equivalent of two-and-a-half irish. but their appetite for work is undeniable and it’s one of the reasons they are among the most populous nationalities working in the catering, cleaning, hospitality, construction and security industries. the reputation for hard work has also added to the stereotype of poles as dour eastern europeans, hungry for overtime with little time to socialise or relax. victoria coach station, london, thursday, 9.35am jozef swiellak, wearing a cheap patterned jumper and black slip-on shoes, is sucking on the remnants of a cigarette. he has been working in sligo as a welder for the last year. he’s now making his way to his home town, near krakow, for a two-week holiday and to see his wife. “do you ever feel homesick?” i ask him. he shrugs his shoulders. “yes, sometimes. a little.” “and your wife. it must be difficult being away for up to a year at a time?” again, he gives a non-committal shrug of his shoulders. “and how long have you been married?” “twelve years,” he says, grimly, as his two friends burst into laughter beside him. victoria coach station, london, thursday, 11am a polish man with bulging arms, wearing a green vest, is hugging his young girlfriend for what seems like an eternity. as she boards the departing bus, he stays at the side of the road for a while, trying to catch a final glimpse of her. the girl opens up a small letter, written in an untidy scrawl with words crossed out and rewritten. when she finishes reading, she stands up in the bus, trying to find her boyfriend amid the throngs of people in the station. she can’t find him. when she re-takes her seat, she hugs a stuffed tiger between her arms and re-reads the creased letter at least a dozen times as the bus makes its way towards dover. outside hannover, germany, thursday 7.15pm journeys to ireland in search of work aren’t always successful. karolina (21), a quiet and hesitant student from outside warsaw, arrived in the country with two other friends five weeks ago. the group had nothing, except for some small savings and the address of a friend. after a few weeks looking for jobs, their money ran out and they had no choice except to return home. “we heard from our friends that it was easy to get a job in dublin,” she says. “but there were polish everywhere! on the streets, in the shops. my friends couldn’t find anything.” warsaw, poland, friday, 1.35pm as the 42-hour journey draws to a close, michael nawacki (20) is in upbeat mood. he has spent a few months in london working on building sites during the week and in a pub in acton on weekends. after a frenetic, work-filled period, he’s glad to be returning home. “what i’m really looking forward to is some mielone schabowy [ fried pork] and pluki ziemmiac [ fried potatoes]. the food in england isn’t good. i ate sandwiches all the time. i didn’t have time to eat anything else,” he says. the 20-year-old says his earnings should tide him over the coming months as he continues studying for a degree in european affairs at a university in warsaw, although he’ll need a part-time job as well to make ends meet. while times have been tough in the past, he’s also upbeat about the future. “look at the houses, the office blocks and the roads,” he says, pointing about him. “things have changed a lot. people are getting richer. there is more of everything.” the bus passes a giant ikea store on the fringes of the city, while a gigantic steel-and-glass office tower is being constructed in a business park a little further down the road. not everything has changed. the bus station, in the southwest of the city, is as you’d imagine an eastern european bus station to be: a grimy concrete building straight out of the brutalist school of architecture. “there is a lot of change happening around us,” says michael. “ireland, i think, is an example for poland. and spain too, which has a similar population to ours. “they show how there can be very quick and very successful changes, if it is done correctly.”

full article on the irish times website, you have to pay to read it all though.
bus éireanns press release about the route.