Blog No1 by Dan Gebski and Poem by Inga McQuaid.
“Will you marry me”
“In my home I’m the boss, my wife is just the decision maker.”
I was always thinking it will be harder to marry someone from a different country. Me and my wife are married for over three years now and I have to say it is a great feeling.
Let me take you to the day when I got on my knees and asked Aislin to marry me. It happened at my son’s christening in Newry. I also asked her father for permission for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Aislin cried and it was a truly amazing day and Aislin said ‘YES’.
We are living in an era where life goes so fast and the young generation do not really have engagements and weddings in the forefront of their minds. It seems to be different in Ireland though. I find the things that are so important in Ireland are not as important in Poland. The wedding ceremony of a wedding itself is completely different in Ireland than Poland.
In my country we enjoy endless amounts of food, and the guests do not buy their alcohol at all as all is provided. In Ireland you have to wait until 5pm for your dinner usually which by that stage you could be on your fifth pint of Guinness !! However, in the wedding ceremony and the entertainment afterwards, there is more effort put into it in Ireland.
I have to add we all at times mostly drink alcohol and have the same hangovers on the next day. The weddings in Poland are sometimes a two days celebration and until 5am in the morning. In Ireland you will be drunk before midnight as you have not been not eating well for a full day, you suffer more from the effects of the alcohol. Apart from that everything is much the same. If you love someone and respect each other nothing matters more. Doesn’t matter where you are from because the happiness is what you are looking for. The culture differences are only what we have been taught in our childhood. If you asked me for advice on marrying a person from different country, my answer is absolutely YES because it is about your happiness together and everything should fall into place beautifully.
POEM.
“Will you marry me”
All of my love and all of my feelings
I choose to give you , my love.
No highest flight will reach our level
You are my only beloved.
You knelt down on one knee , you told your story
The rest is just history.
Of course I said :”Yes” and gently shaken
I walked down the aisle with you.
Life is, at large, about those around you
About you and I and our love.
Marriage is concrete that binds us together
The shield to stand against all.
Nothing has changed as decades run by us
I still deeply love you, my dear.
I thank you for happiness, being beside you
Has taught me to fight for what’s real.
White dresses, tuxedos , flash cars,wedding flowers ..
Are now a warm memory.
And only the loyalty , peace and protection
Has promised a full ancestry.
(Inga McQuaid, January 2020).
