THE FAMILY of one of the Polish men who died after being stabbed with a screwdriver last weekend have said they will never be sure if the fatal attack was racially motivated.
Gosia Szwajkos, the sister of Marius Szwajkos, said her family "want to believe he was not killed just because he was Polish".
Speaking by telephone to The Irish Times from the family home in Szczucin, southern Poland, Ms Szwajkos said it was unlikely that the true motive for the attack that claimed her brother's life and that of his friend Pawel Kalite would ever be known.
"We want to believe that it wasn't [racially motivated]. When my second brother went to Ireland this week, everybody was extremely nice to him, everybody was trying to help him.
"So we want to believe deep down that my brother was not killed because he was Polish. But to be honest with you we probably won't ever know."
Ms Szwajkos said her family was too distressed to speak in public about her brother's death. Her second brother has already returned to Poland after coming to Ireland earlier in the week to plan the repatriation of Marius's remains.
She expressed her thanks to the hospital staff who cared for him in the period before he died and to gardaí for their assistance since the attack last Saturday evening in Drimnagh, Dublin.
The family are now waiting for the coroner's report so that the body can be released and flown back to Poland. A bank account has been set up at the AIB branch in Farm Centre, Naas Road, to help both families with the repatriation costs.
Mr Szwajkos died from his injuries on Monday at St James's Hospital, Dublin, after he was stabbed in the head by a teenager with a screwdriver on Benbulbin Road, Drimnagh. Mr Kalite was stabbed in the throat in the same attack. He died at the same hospital early yesterday.
Both the Taoiseach and the Polish ambassador to Ireland, Dr Tadeusz Szumowski, described the vicious attack as "hooliganism".
The embassy said it had received about 100 calls this week from Irish people who expressed their outrage at the incident and said that Poles were welcome in Ireland.
A vigil is to be held tomorrow at 6.30pm where the incident took place. Local parish priest Fr Martin Cosgrove has organised a Mass for Monday evening, at a time to be confirmed today
The Polish Information and Culture Centre and the Polish Weekly Polska Gazetais to hold a conference next week to discuss the relationship between the Irish and immigrant communities following the incident.