ABSTRACT
The nature of Irish exile was cultural in two respects, Exile was an escape from provincialism and nationalism, seen as the source of xenophobia and intolerance. Exile, both internal and external, was also a response to a crisis of culture and identity, and an expression of postcolonial hybridity. Geographical translation is another feature that distinguishes Polish and Irish literary expressions of exile. Irish poets have also expressed historical and mythical Ireland through histories and mythologies of other nations, finding parallels between them in order to define Irish historical and cultural experience, but also to reassert participation in a larger European if not a world heritage. The difference in perception of home itself and identification with it lies also in the fact that Polish and Irish exiles were escaping realities created by contrary political forces. For both Polish and Irish writers in exile writing was distinguished as a way of dealing with political and social matters of homeland.
