Polish nationalists sought to prevent European Parliament President Pat Cox from addressing lawmakers in Warsaw today after alleging he had made anti-Polish remarks.
A former Progressive Democrats member and later independent MEP for Munster, Mr Cox was in Warsaw to receive an award for backing Poland's EU entry bid.
He eventually delivered his speech only after parliament voted to let him speak.
The League of Polish Families, a far-right opposition party, demanded the vote, and its 28 deputies walked out of the session when Mr Cox began to speak.
League leader Mr Roman Giertych said Mr Cox should have been barred from parliament because of comments he alleged Mr Cox had made about Germans expelled from former eastern territories at the end of World War Two.
Mr Giertych claimed that Mr Cox had referred to the expulsions earlier this year as unjust and illegal, although the Cork man said he had been misquoted.But Mr Cox explained he had only said the expellees harboured "deep feeling of injustice", the Polish Press Agency reported.
The row comes amid a furore in Poland sparked by a plan backed by the League of German Expellees for a centre in Berlin to commemorate millions of Germans expelled from lands handed to Poland by the victorious World War Two allies.
Mr Cox's speech, in which he welcomed Poland "back at the heart of Europe", was received with enthusiasm by mainstream parties. Poland is the biggest of 10, mostly east European, countries set to join the EU next May.