Sylwester Szczyrow (25) came to Ireland armed with "MTV English" and a degree with the hope of making a better life for himself. But yesterday his Polish friends gathered at a church in Cork city centre to say their last goodbyes after his life was cut tragically short in a car crash on Good Friday.
More than 250 members of the Polish community in Cork attended a special memorial Mass at St Augustine's Church last night to pay tribute to the lives of four of their compatriots who died when the car they were travelling in collided with a lorry at Ballinhassig, Co Cork, last Friday night.
The Mass was also attended by Irish co-workers of Mr Szczyrow, Andrzej Wojciechowski (27), Radoslaw Nowmak (23) and 28-year-old Rafal Gorski.
All of the deceased were from Mazuria in northeastern Poland and were working in the construction industry and service stations.