Pracujące Poniedziałki: Saint Patrick’s Day On Polish TVP – Pytanie na Śniadanie

“When your turn comes round, and the light goes on” – Neil Finn.

Well it has been a wild week. When I woke up on Monday morning, I had no idea that that night I would be travelling by train to Warszawa, staying in the Novotel with an amazing view of the city and appearing on prime time Polish National Television the next day. It was of course Saint Patrick’s Day, and certainly not the first Saint Patrick’s Day I would spend in Poland! Here are some memory jogs…

• Saint Patrick’s Day 2017 in Pub Irlandzki, Warszawa
• Saint Patrick’s Day 2018 with David (Chido-Fajny) in Molly Malone’s, Warszawa
• Saint Patrick’s Day 2023 in Kicia Kocia, Warszawa
• 17 Facts About Saint Patrick

And some epic photos of all that…

Pracujące Poniedziałki: Saint Patrick’s Day On Polish TVP – Pytanie na Śniadanie

And so in 2026, at the last minute I got invited to the excellent Polish breakfast show “Pytanie Na Sniadanie” (Questions For Breakfast) on TVP and here I arrived into Warszawa. I first checked into my hotel, the Warszawa Novotel, Room 3008…

Then I met up with my best mate Rafal for beers (and probably to calm my nerves) and we drank in Nowogrodzka Street. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Then I grabbed about 4 hours sleep, woke up fresh at 5 a.m. for this crazy adventure. I was buzzing and nervous. TVP organised a taxi to collect me after a quick breakfast, 2 coffees and some beetroot juice.

The taxi was organised for 6.55 a.m. with the show starting at 7.55 a.m. But the taxi arrived 17 minutes early, so I decided to neck my cappuccino and jump in to get there early…

30 minutes later I was inside the studio, introduced to Paulina, the PR lady, and ushered to the make-up room. That was the first time I had been to a make-up room!!

Then I was introduced to Patrick Ney, who I have “known online” for many years but this was our first face-to-face meeting. Patrick, who speaks fluent Polish, is married with two kids here, has Irish roots and also of course his name is PATRICK!! I was of course (as ever) wearing a Northern Ireland shirt, and it was cool that Patrick was wearing a Republic of Ireland shirt, that was NOT planned (many assumed it was) but meant we were now representing the whole island, along with Paul from Derry (Doire/Londonderry) of course.

We had a quick chat, no time to waste as we started to get ready to go on air. I met Paul Casey, guitarist too, briefly. Then we got our microphones on and tested and were ushered into position on “our wee table”.

We are then told via the microphone that we are going LIVE after the Irish dancers. EEK!! Paul Casey and I also had translators on the live earfeed, which was something new to me. I have been on TV before but never with a translator and a slight time delay. Before you know it, we are LIVE on air. Wow! Here are a few snapshots of that. Everything of course is copyright of TVP and PNS.

It all went so quickly, and smoothly. Although I was nervous, the whole thing happened so fast…Here I have attempted (and will probably edit it later, after feedback) to write what I said (or meant to say) live on Polish TV:

[at the start]

Łukasz: Hi!
Jonny: Cześć!

[then Paul and Patrick speak, then Jonny’s turn again]

Łukasz: Jonny, your turn your time now.
Jonny: Hello.

Łukasz: Jonny, your story. You are a traveller, you have travelled the whole world, you have been in different countries, what is your perspective of Saint Patrick’s Day? 

Jonny: In my opinion the way I see it, is he (Saint Patrick) was a man who brought a lot of peace to the world. Ireland has always been a very peaceful, you know, calm island with green nature. We are all wearing green of course today. He brings a bit of peace and relaxation and if we can spread that sentiment around the world, especially in these times, 2026, I think the world would be a better place. It’s great to be in Poland for it and I have also been in China before on Saint Patrick’s Day and travelled around and spread a bit of friendly spirit even just for one day, if we can just relax and chill out, you know, it’s a beautiful world.

So you know, I am happy to be here and I can’t wait to celebrate again, you know a bit later today.

Marzena: You are from Northern Ireland, tell us what is a Northern Irishman doing here in Poland?

Jonny: Yeah, I mean living in Poland, I guess my journey here was quite a long one, because I used to work with quite a lot of Polish people when I lived in England. Of course there are also a lot of Polish people living in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland too. Being from Northern Ireland though is nice because you know Saint Patrick is buried there in Downpatrick, a lovely little town. Coming to Poland and being from Northern Ireland, it kind of matches with my mentality at the moment.

Marzena: Bardzo miło słyszeć. I Went To Gdansk With Somebody.

Marzena: That’s very nice to hear. I Went To Gdansk With Somebody. Tell us about your book…

Jonny: Yeah I mean yeah there’s a lot of beautiful cities in Poland. Gdansk, Gdynia, Sopot (Trojmiasto), Krakow, Warszawa, Olsztyn. No but I think the book is about, I am a seaside boy from Bangor in Northern Ireland and I think to go from Bangor to Gdansk was quite a similar (I meant “easy”) transition and Sopot too a nice summer spot, with its beach, but I focused on Gdansk when I wrote the book. 

Things I wanted to say and forgot in the heat/nervosity of the moment.

• that Saint Patrick brought Pagan and Christianity together to bring peace to the island.
• that the Celtic Cross on my Northern Ireland football shirt is the pagan symbol of the circle and the cross from the Christian shirt.

And that was that. The show was done and I headed back to the hotel to check out and get a train back to Olsztyn.

As far as moments in my life go, I’ll admit this was quite a huge honour for me to be invited. A total shock and something I was nervous about but knew I had to do it. Looking back at the photos and video, I am proud that things ran very smoothly on the day. TVP were so PROFESSIONAL, everything ran like clockwork from the hotel, to the taxi, to the make-up, to the timings, the microphone checks, the filming – just brilliantly organised!! When you see how hard everyone works behind the scenes, it is SO impressive. LOVED IT. Thanks to everyone who helped make this a super week!!

I want to thank especially Kaja, Paulina and Alma for the invites/pre-recording information, Lukasz and Marzena the hosts, my fellow guests, everyone at TVP and PNS for such professional organisation and a great fun experience! I loved it!

You can view the show here – our part is about 4 minutes after the show starts!

https://vod.tvp.pl/live,1/tvp-2,399698/2026-03-17/pytanie-na-sniadanie,2794668

 

Here is my video diary of this insane and amazing day…