Statement of sympathy by Michael Mulcahy T.D.

I wish to thank you (Ceann Comhairle) for granting me the special opportunity of adding my voice to the other voices of sympathy for the victims of the Polish Air Force crash on 10^th April.  I do so firstly as an Irish citizen, but secondly, as a public representative who has always taken a great interest for Poland, and holds that Country in great affection.  When Lord Mayor of Dublin (2001-2002), my first official visit was to Poland, and, having advocated stronger links between our two Countries for several years, I was honoured in 2002 by the Polish Government.

The loss of any single life is tragic, but what makes the air crash on 10^th April 2010 especially tragic, is that the victims represented a group of the highest calibre leaders of Polish society, both political, moral, and cultural, past and present.  Our sympathy of our Country go out to the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, but an examination of all 96 persons aboard, (89 passengers and 7 crew members) indicates what a terrible loss it is to Poland. 

I would also like to especially mention two people:

• Ryszard Kaczorowski, born in 1919, a Polish Statesman, who, between 1989 and 1990, served as the last President of Poland in exile.  Arrested in 1940 by the NKVD, and sentenced to death, he was later set free, and served in the army led by General Anders, and fought in most major battles of the Polish Second Corps, including the battle of Monte casino.  A member of the National Council of Poland, the Parliament in exile, he was the last President in exile of the Polish state, and handed over the insignia of the Presidential power of the second Republic to President Lech Walesa on December 22^nd 1990.

• Ms. Anna Walentynowicz, born in 1929, was a Polish free Trade Union activist, who worked in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk.  It was her firing in August 1980 that was the event which led to the strike in the Gdansk ship yard that paralysed the Baltic coast and led eventually to the creation of Solidarity.

It is especially poignant that this tragedy occurred while the delegation was on its way to commemorate the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and other Polish persons, at Katyn in April of 1940.  It is to be hoped that one of the consequences of this terrible tragedy is that Poland and Russia will move even closer to improving their relations, which of course would be a fitting tribute to all those who died on Polish Air Force Tu-154 on 10^th April 2010.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha dílse