Polish photographer Barbara Golec Regiec makes Monaghan her home.
Barbara Golec Regiec described what it was like growing up with a closely-knit family and community and going to a boarding school. With an interest in languages, she left Sromowce Nizne at 18 to learn English in a college in England for three years while living with a British family, then learned German in Austria for a year. She then moved to Ireland in 2005 to join her husband in Monaghan where she worked in a timber frame company for 7 years but was made redundant during the recession. She is now happily volunteering in Monaghan in various groups and is a professional photographer since 2014. She makes sure her husband, twins and son are also very well integrated in the community, and encourages migrants not to isolate themselves, learn about their host countries and to give back to society.
