25 years of democratic Poland – a talk with discussion. Special guest – Dr Jacqueline Hayden

All are welcome to Polish House on Sunday, 8th June, 5pm. There will be a talk with discussion. We expect to hear about Dr Hayden’s unique remarkable experience in the Poland of 1980.The evening will be in an informal atmosphere, admission is free and light refreshments will be served.
25 years of democratic Poland. It all started with the first post-WW2 partly-free parliamentary elections in Poland, June 4th, 1989. For the first time after the war the people of Poland were allowed to freely choose their representatives to one-third of the seats in the Sejm (lower house of parliament) and all the seats in the newly established Senate. The elections brought a crushing defeat to the Communists and the first non-Communist government in the Soviet bloc was formed.
To mark this important ‘silver anniversary’ the Irish Polish Society will have a special event on Sunday, 8th June, at 5pm. Our special guest will be Dr Jacqueline Hayden.

Dr Jacqueline Hayden is a lecturer at the Dept. of Political Science, at Trinity College. As a young freelance journalist she travelled in 1980 to Poland to write a series of articles for the “Irish Press”. She later wrote: The editor was very interested in finding out about the home of the new Pope, John Paul. …Irish people knew very little about Poland other than that was a Catholic country ‘suffering under reds’. That visit changed my life…
The title of Dr Hayden PhD thesis was: “Explaining the collapse of Communism in Poland: How the strategic misperception of Round Table negotiators produced an unanticipated outcome”.
For her outstanding reporting of events during Poland’s transition to democracy Dr Hayden was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski.