One often hears of a Polish person dying, which is sad, she said. But this time it was personal.

I went to the place where she lived and talked to her friends, who had last spoken to her just that morning, " said Kierdelewicz. I saw her cell phone ringing and no one could answer it. I was really attached that time. When it is brought that close to you, you realise just how difficult it is for everyone involved."

And with three Polish citizens dying in Ireland every week, these difficulties are being faced over and over again by the families and friends left behind to cope with the loss.

This is according to the Polish embassy in Dublin, which says it is dealing with an average of three deaths weekly, most of them accidents, and finding the related workload hard to manage.

It is a high number to have to deal with every week, " said Nicola Sekowska of the embassy. With every death comes so much worry and so much work. They are mostly accidents and very sudden, which makes it worse. It's awful for the families. It's awful for everyone involved."

It is estimated that there are nearly 120,000 Polish people living in Ireland, most of them aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Most come to Ireland for a few years to work and save money before returning home, but when a tragedy occurs and the story has a different ending, family and friends are left to deal with the difficulty and expense of bringing the body home. And they all believe the Polish death rate in Ireland is far too high, given the population.

This is very bad news, " said Father Piotr Galus, a chaplain to the Polish community in Cork. Most of the Polish people here are young, and for three a week to be dying is very tragic. It is true that, being young, they are more likely to be in an accident in work or in street fights, and road deaths are very bad here. How many more have to die before people realise that drinking and driving is dangerous and tragic for everyone involved?"

Today, the funerals of four young Polish men who were killed in a car crash in Cork on Good Friday are taking place in Poland. Sylwester Szczyrow (25), Andrzej Wojciechowski (27), Radoslaw Nowak (23) and Rafal Gorski, all from Pisz and living in Ballincollig, Co Cork, were killed when their Polish-registered car collided with a truck.

So far this year, 18 Eastern Europeans have been killed on Irish roads, making up 15% of total road deaths. Of these, eight have been Polish, making them the highest nationality represented.

Another factor in the high death rate is the construction industry. There are large numbers of Poles represented in what is one of the most dangerous industrial areas to work in. On Good Friday, the same day the four Polish men were killed in Cork, 49year-old Czeslan Malinowski from Poland fell from a teleporter in Roscommon town.

He died from his injuries on Easter Sunday.

All indications show that non-nationals are the most at-risk sector of the workforce, " said a spokesman for the Health and Safety Authority (HSA). ?There are large numbers of them working in high-risk industries, there is the language problem and then a cultural problem, where many come from workplaces where health and safety standards are not as high."

Although non-nationals account for just eight per cent of the workplace, they made up 14% of work-related fatalities last year, prompting the HSA to bring out safety instruction leaflets in several languages, including Polish.

From my own experience dealing with this, Polish people figure highly in work place fatalities, " said the spokesman.

When a Polish person dies in Ireland, the family is immediately faced with the cost of bringing the body home. This amounts to around 2,000, the equivalent of 10 months' wages to the average Polish worker. The embassy has no funds to offer because of the high death rate, and often, as in Cork last week, the community fundraises to send the body home. But in less high-profile cases, the family often has to consider other options.

Very often, the cost of transport is so high and there are no funds so the only option the family has is to have the body cremated, " said Kierdelewicz.

Fr Galus has started a campaign to warn young people to take care of themselves when living away from home.

Polish people are very religious, " he said. For instance, I heard nearly 1,000 confessions on Good Friday alone, and 80% of people go to mass in Poland. But here in Ireland, there are not enough Polish masses, not enough priests. If they don't get to mass, sometimes they turn to drink or drugs. They have accidents. Many people are in fear when they come to Ireland. We need to fix that."