The President, Mrs McAleese, completed her state visit to Poland this week with an address to the Catholic University in Lublin. It is an important time for Poland's new democracy, as voters prepare to make an historic choice in this weekend's referendum on whether to join the European Union.
Mrs McAleese was scrupulous to avoid advising them how to vote. But she argued passionately that it would be a 'slap in the face' for those millions of Poles who fought so hard for democracy and independence if so many stay away from the polls as to invalidate the result.
In a series of speeches she offered eloquent testimony from Ireland's experience of EU membership as a possible model for Poland. She attributed Ireland's transition from a peripheral, underdeveloped state still dependent on and at odds with its large neighbour to today's confident and outgoing prosperity in good part to our European engagement.
Poles seek reassurance that joining the EU will not diminish their cultural and national identity or their new-found independence. Ireland's and Poland's history of dominance by more powerful neighbours, and the similarities in their struggles for freedom, give a real added edge to the commonplace comparisons of such presidential speeches. Mrs McAleese was at her most persuasive in making her points to appreciative audiences of Polish and Irish guests in Warsaw and Lublin before travelling on to Slovakia.
The substantial trade delegation accompanying her represents the hundreds of Irish companies doing business with Poland, with an annual turnover there of €850 million, an accumulated investment of €1.2 billion and 12,000 Poles employed. Poland is the largest and most important of the 10 States preparing to join the EU in what Mrs McAleese described as a 'huge party' being planned in Dublin next May, during Ireland's EU presidency, to welcome them in as members after all ratification procedures have been completed.
The biggest uncertainty is whether turnout in this referendum will be over the 50 per cent necessary without having recourse to a two-thirds majority in the Polish parliament.
Heavy unemployment, low trust in the government after a series of corruption scandals and a xenophobic No campaign based on traditionalist Catholicism are presenting major campaigning obstacles to the clear majority of Poles who support membership of the EU as a key step in consolidating their country's European identity.