A DECADES-OLD Polish link with Dunfermline’s Carnegie Hall has been brought full circle by a new touring production.

At the weekend, wartime memories were stirred for members of the Polish Ex-Combatants Association as they paid the theatre and music institute a visit.

Dogstar Theatre Company will perform ’e Polish Quine at the theatre this Saturday, a play directed by Matthew Zajac with a cast of six, including Glasgow-based Polish actress Magdalena Kaleta, playing the role of Polish refugee Anna in what is her first English-speaking role.

Set after the war in 1946, the play, by the Inverness-based Dogstar Company, deals with issues faced by Anna’s family in settling in to a Scottish community.

Men who knew about putting down roots in a foreign land were the thousands of Polish soldiers based in Scotland during the war.

Some of them, who married Scots girls and made a new life here, were on hand in Dunfermline to see an important link with their past.

Lech Muszynski, of the Ex-Combatants Association, said four Polish brigades were involved in defending Scotland’s Eastern seaboard against an anticipated German invasion from Norway.

The men also found time to forge strong links with the Fife community, none more so than in Dunfermline. It is estimated up to a million services personnel may have crossed the threshold of the music institute during the war years.

The Carnegie Hall joined in, offering free forces’ entertainment, at first by local talent, later augmented by official ENSA parties.

But it was a particularly special place to the Polish Army Choir, which was among the top performers during the war years and their Carnegie Hall concerts were not to be missed. One of their soloists was a famed Polish bass, Lieutenant Marian Nowakowski, who was billeted in Dunfermline.

While he later achieved worldwide fame, his voice was somewhat untrained and he was delighted to have singing lessons from the institute’s part-time director of music, James Moodie, a man who lived and breathed music.

The two, separated by language but drawn together by a love of music, first communicated in very bad French until Marian picked up some English—albeit spoken with a broad Fife accent.

Mr Moodie arranged the old favourite Annie Laurie for Marian and he always told audiences how he came by the song. And it was thanks to the kindness shown by local people to the Poles that the music institute has a lasting reminder of that special time.

One of their men, Lieutenant Mieczkowski, created a giant mural on the wall of the lounge where it can still be seen behind its protective glass.

Seeing the mural, the veterans were given another surprise when the Carnegie Hall’s Bill Mair offered free tickets to see the show which will evoke many memories for them.