Pola Artemis Zahorska: Patrycja, our paths crossed thanks to the Leadership School. I received your contact details from Aneta Birnbaum, my mentor during the Academy of Young Leaders and Polonia Ambassadors, who visited the Polish House in Galway in October.
What role did the School of Leadership play in your journey and in the creation of this place?
Patrycja Lentowszczyk-Cichocka It played a very important role on my journey. I completed the leadership programme in 2013, spending over two intense weeks by Lake Zegrze and participating in study visits to various parts of Poland. For me, it was a time of rediscovering the country: creativity, civic energy, and the power of social initiatives. It was then that my dream of creating a centre for Polish diaspora activities while abroad was born. I wanted to create a space that many local activists had lacked for years. This thought has matured for a long time, but today, seeing the real scale of needs, I know that my intuition did not fail me then and the idea of creating this space was a good one.
Your story begins with emigration, but very quickly turns into action. What really started it all?
My journey began with a longing for language, for home, for something that could save the Polish soul in a world that didn't always understand our sensitivity. When I came to Ireland many years ago, I didn't yet know that…
