A Polish pub (above) has been opened today on Reading's Oxford Road. The building used to be an Irish pub when it was the "Battle Inn". Now it is the "Gospoda". Good luck to Lucas Celmer and Margaret Majszak, the landlord and landlady!
When it was an Irish pub, I remember going in once and trying to find a recognisable tune on the jukebox. It was difficult. The machine mostly had Irish folk songs on it. During the Irish troubles, it was a bit weird having an Irish pub just 200 yards from an army barracks. I have heard tell that it was not unknown for the odd squaddie to enter the pub in uniform just to see what "kicked off" as a result!
I have noticed an increase in "Poles" stories in the Express and Mail recently. For example, last week one of them had a front page headline about the number of Poles who have entered Britain recently. Of course, finding the number who were here temporarily and the number of equivalent British people who have gone to Poland or other EU countries in the same period, is usually an uphill task in these newspapers.
I have noticed that a couple of Polish shops have sprung up in Newbury recently. I welcome them and the Gospoda pub.
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