The title of this book is a quotation from the Polish literary critic Adolf Nowaczynski in reference to John Millington Synges play "The Playboy of the Western World". It highlights the political, cultural and religious parallels between Poland and Ireland in the 19th century. Irelands struggle for home rule had strong similarities with the situation of many central and eastern European nations. This analysis addressed the question of the extend to which these historical similarities influenced the representation of eastern European immigrants in Irish newspapers in the years following the European Union's eastern enlargement.