GROUPS REPRESENTING the 27,000 Polish people living in the North have apologised for the violence caused mainly by visiting “Polish football hooligans” ahead of the recent Northern Ireland versus Poland game in Belfast.
Under the umbrella of the Polish Community Forum of Northern Ireland, the groups issued a statement yesterday deploring the “intolerable behaviour” of the so-called Polish fans, and urging that the good relations established with local people should not be damaged.
The orchestrated trouble generated by a number of the visiting Poles in turn triggered attacks and intimidation of several Polish families in Northern Ireland, mainly on those living in the loyalist Village area of south Belfast. According to Maciek Bator of the Polish Association of Northern Ireland, which is part of the forum, over 40 of his compatriots were forced to leave the Village area because of the reprisal intimidation.
This was effectively confirmed by the Housing Executive which yesterday said that “11 households” had sought rehousing “citing trouble in the Village area as the reason”. But since that trouble efforts involving Polish community leaders, the PSNI, Belfast City Council, local politicians and loyalist community representatives have taken place to calm tensions and to create the conditions where Poles could continue to live peacefully in the Village and other areas of the North, said Mr Bator.
The forum, whose groups also come from towns such as Newry, Derry and Portadown where large numbers of Poles are living, continued that outreach yesterday with the letter of apology for the violence on March 26th when Poland played Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in Belfast.
“As has been repeatedly indicated, as Polish immigrants living in Northern Ireland we disassociate ourselves in every respect from the group of so-called supporters who came to Belfast not for the football match but deliberately to bring about rioting,” the forum said in its statement.
