Gdansk to Knock

“Shaking hands with the man who, in some respects, shook the world, was a real privilege”

Michael Commins

IT was a long way from the Gdansk shipyard to Knock Shrine but the former Solidarity leader, whose impact on world affairs was truly profound, looked easy and relaxed during his visit to Knock Shrine. In many ways, it was hard to believe that this most ordinary of men was at the centre of the world media glare back in the 1980s.
Stocky but of powerful build, he looked for all the world like a long retired Kilkenny or Tipperary hurler of farming stock, a defender in every sense of the word. And his wife Danuta, whom he married in 1969, might well have been an officer in some ICA Guild in times gone by. As they sat in prayer in the front row, it would have been easy to mistake them for an Irish couple.
Since I first saw pictures of Lech Walesa in the newspapers, and watched him on television, he has always reminded me of Cllr Johnny Mee from Castlebar. There’s an uncanny physical resemblance between the two men, while their political philosophies are probably very close too.
Shaking hands with the man who, in some respects, shook the world, was a real privilege. Strong hands fashioned and shaped during his years of manual labour in a country under the watchful eye of Soviet control.
Lech Walesa was born in Popowo, Poland in 1943. He attended primary and vocational school, before entering the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk as an electrical technician in 1967. Two years later, he married Danuta Gołos and the couple raised a family of eight children.
His life with the workers in the shipyard became intrinsically linked after riot police killed over 80 workers in the first strike back in 1970. He later served a year in jail and eventually lost his job in 1976.
Two years later, he was one of the prime organisers of the illegal underground Free Trade Union of Pomerania On August 14, 1980, after the beginning of an occupational strike in Gdansk, Wałesa illegally scaled the wall of the shipyard and became the leader of the strike.
On December 11, 1981, he was arrested. General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared a state of martial law on December 13. Wałesa was interned for eleven months in south-eastern Poland near the Soviet border. In 1983, he applied to come back to Gdansk Shipyard to his former position as a simple electrician. While formally treated as a ‘simple worker’, he was practically under house arrest until 1987. The year 1983 saw Wałesa being honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize, a nomination and award that saw him take back centre stage in world affairs again.
Later years saw him elected President of Poland and in May, 2004, the Gdansk international airport was officially renamed Gdansk Lech Wałesa Airport.
Here in Mayo, as guest of Rehab on a visit coordinated by Kevin Bourke and friends, Lech Walesa seemed very much at ease. Kneeling in prayer in Knock Basilica, you could sense the authenticity of the man whose life has been guided by the principles of fair play and compassion. Over-regulation and interference by arms of the State in the lives of individuals are anathema to the man who lived through such dictation and lack of basic freedoms.
Just a short stroll from the Basilica, Lech Walesa planted a tree in the church grounds in memory of his fellow countryman and friend, Pope John Paul II. The symbolism was powerful and you could not help but feel a sense of history.
The natural ease with which he handled the shovel showed that he was well used to such work in former times. A man of the soil and a man with roots stretching deep into the culture of his native country but with an outreach far beyond its borders. History will surely hold a revered place for the man from Gdansk.