krakow

Rob and Antoine are sleeping in the back seat. I’m up front, taking the brunt of the conversation.

“Two hundred fifty euro per month my son in Krakow earn, yes? First month in Buncrana is two thousand euro.” Like practically everyone we meet in Poland, Boguslaw has family working in Ireland. His new grandson is even an Irish citizen. “Of course, Donegal very beautiful. Atlantic Ocean very beautiful. But Spire of Dublin? Why you waste all money on this piece of shit?” He seems to expect some sort of answer. Oh, God… Read the rest of this article here.

“THEY WILL LOCK YOU UP IN THIS TOWN, MATE. TURYSTA OR NO TURYSTA…!”

“I punch him hard in the mouth. But it’s like he sees it coming before I do, because he lands two blows in retaliation before I’ve even realised I’m in a fight…” Read the rest of the article here.

“THEY WILL LOCK YOU UP IN THIS TOWN, MATE. TURYSTA OR NO TURYSTA…!”

“I punch him hard in the mouth. But it’s like he sees it coming before I do, because he lands two blows in retaliation before I’ve even realised I’m in a fight…” Read the rest of the article here.

Published: Mongrel Magazine, March 2004

The March of the Wooden Soldiers

“Forever let this place be a cry of despair
and a warning to humanity, where the Nazis
murdered about one and a half million men,
women and children, mainly Jews,
from various countries of Europe”
Inscription at Auschwitz-Birkenau

THE northern gate at Birkenau is deserted as the taxi driver shoos us out into the snow. We stumble forward, bleary-eyed and dumbfounded by the sheer scale of what’s in front of us. Read the rest of this entry »