I grew up there and spent most of my life there before I moved to Poznan, which is half way between Warsaw and Berlin, and spent seven years there while I was at university.

The name Poznan originates from the Polish term 'to meet' and I must have taken that meaning literally as that is where I met my wife Iwona.

I have been living in Ireland for just over four years. I was here in 1997 with the Polish Irish society on a two week coach tour around Ireland and during that trip I made friends with a guy involved in the society.

On St Patrick's Day 2003, my wife and I opened a branch of the Polish Irish Society in my city and soon after that we decided to emigrate to Ireland.

Apart from the weather, we have liked Ireland since we first arrived here. Among the most striking first impressions when I arrived first was how easy it was to get a job and the way you can survive quite well on the minimum wage which cannot be said about working in Poland.

A friend and neighbour from home allowed us to stay with him for a few nights when we moved here first. Then we stayed in a hostel in Temple Bar for a few nights which was a bad choice as we were woken up by the noise.

Within a week I got a job working as a security guard and I did that for 10 months even though I was a bit overqualified.

After that I worked as a TEFL teacher before I set up my own language school which was mainly aimed at Poles. Then I started to do translations and through the translations I met Manus McClafferty from McClafferty Maguire solicitors and I started working for that firm as a legal executive. Before I left Poland I had completed an MA in law in 2001 and I am now studying law at Griffith College, doing preparatory work for the Final Exam 1 (FE1) with the Law Society.

I really like working in my current job as it is the first time I have really enjoyed working as a lawyer. I did the same work in Poland but I did not enjoy it as much.

I think that I have been lucky as I have met the right people to work for. I really like the people I work with and we get on well together.

Maguire McClafferty likes to stand up for people's rights and they are not just interested in pushing paper. I like their attitude and the fact that they want to make a difference.

I live in Drogheda now and commute 60km every morning to work in Dublin.

We have two children . . . Agatha who was born on 31 December, 2004, and Wojciech, who was born on 13 May last. They are both Irish so I am very proud of that.

My parents and two brothers still live in Poland and I see them a few times a year. With cheaper flights, mobiles, videophones and other technology they are not far away from us at all. I am more in touch with my parents than ever before.

Overall I feel that the Irish way of life is easier. There is no hassle in many aspects of daily life. Although there are a few small things that I do not understand about the Irish way of life.

One of them is the taps you have in the bathroom. You have a hot tap on one side of the sink and a cold tap on the other side so you either burn your hands or get them cold. At home we have one tap where you can mix hot and cold.

With all due respects, the Irish are not very good at cooking and the food is not as good as at home but it is not that bad as there are plenty of Polish shops in Ireland now.

The first two or three years were a torture to get good bread but you now have Polish bakeries so things are better.

Having spent time in jobs that don't pay well and now working as a legal executive I can see that an awful lot of Poles are overqualified for what they do in Ireland at the minute.

Even though around 20% of Poles in Ireland are graduates, a lot of them have to go the route I took when they arrive here until they find their feet but I think that things will change over time.

If I was to leave Ireland in the morning I would miss the fact that I am one of the few people who are known well among the Polish community as someone who is here to help them.

There are only four or five Polish lawyers working between thousands of Poles in Ireland.

Personal injury and liable law is the area where most Poles come to me looking for help so I get a lot of job satisfaction when I help them out.