The Irish Times today included an article by a Polish immigrant who had been in Ireland since 2002 and is now about to move back to Poland. In her comments about Ireland, she talked about making friends:

“To befriend an Irish person is a different story. Coming from my culture, where you say what you think, it was a mighty challenge to understand what was really said in a conversation. Freud was right in claiming it was impossible to psychoanalyze the Irish. That barrier of polite, yet distant, friendliness seemed impregnable. To my delight, I found out that it was actually soluble in alcohol. In that way, I was privileged to enter ‘an inner circle of trust’ and gained a few good Irish friends.”