Mr Eugen Pintya, an economist, and Mr Stanislav Cozulea, a dentist, liken Naas on a sunny Friday morning to paradise. Their 17 companions, also from Moldova, don't speak any English but all are sporting relieved smiles.
"Prison was hell," said Mr Pintya, "but we are now happy to be in Ireland." The group is staying in the Townhouse hotel, Naas, after spending their first four nights in Ireland in Mountjoy. Thursday was their first evening as free men and they spent it downing Guinness and lager while listening to traditional music and enjoying an Irish welcome from locals.
Mr Pintya (28) speaks Russian and Romanian and has some English, although he said it was eight years since he studied it at college. Mr Cozulea (28) has a few words, enough to put together the phrase: "You have a big heart."
This was directed at Mrs Mary Elliffe and her brother, Mr Bertie Dunne, proprietors of the Townhouse hotel, who are accommodating the men until they begin work.
According to Mr Pintya, the group had been told at the airport on Sunday they would be taken to a hotel and would have a solicitor and a translator on Monday morning. Instead, they ended up in prison that night. "I've never had handcuffs on me before, never been in prison, never been in trouble," he said.
They were comfortable in prison and treated well, Mr Pintya said. But, when no translator was forthcoming on Monday morning, they decided not to eat breakfast in protest. By Monday evening they had met a translator and a solicitor. Meanwhile, Mr Bertie Dunne had been contacted by Moldovans in Naas and asked to help.
"I'm a hotelier and a landlord and I'm accommodating Moldovans in Kildare. They contacted me and said their friends were in Mountjoy. I rang Emmet Stagg and he advised us on the situation," said Mr Dunne.
Since the group's original jobs in a Kildare meat factory had disappeared because of the BSE crisis, Mr Dunne secured an offer of nine jobs with a foodprocessing company, the Queally Group, in Naas, and 10 jobs with Movex Packaging in Tallaght, Co Dublin. The paperwork is now being processed.
Mr Pintya, who is single, said he had been earning between $30 and $50 a month while Mr Cozulea, married with a three-year-old son, was earning about $15 a month in Moldova. A year in Ireland, even working in jobs for which their five and nine years in college were not required, would still leave them substantially better off, Mr Pintya said.
Neither man had any complaints about the Irish justice system, and both were grateful to the judge who ordered their handcuffs removed in court. There is still some confusion about the whereabouts of some of their belongings, but the men are now looking forward to some sightseeing before they begin work.