THE recently appointed Polish Consul General to Northern Ireland, Dariusz Adler has died at his home in Belfast on Sunday.
Honorary consul Jerome Mullen announced his death "with deep regret" yesterday.
The 53-year-old was appointed in November as the first consul general as the newly established Consulate General of Poland in Belfast.
He had served in the previous four years as Consul General in Scotland, where he also had responsibility for Northern Ireland.
A native of Warsaw, Mr Adler joined the ministry of foreign affairs in 1996 and worked initially on Poland's relationship with NATO and "blossomed in to a career building bridges with Poland's significant international diaspora", Mr Mullen said.
His first posting as a career diplomat was in Chicago after which he returned to Poland in 2006 to the Department of Consular and Polonia Affairs.
Mr Adler was then posted to London as head of consular services at the embassy and after three years was promoted to the consular division of the embassy which is the busiest in the world for consular activity.
"I have had the personal honour and privilege to have worked with Dariusz Adler in my role as Honorary Consul of Poland over the past five years," Mr Mullen said.
"He was man of great energy and compassion and i regard my years working alongside him as a real joy and will miss him greatly.
"I offer my deepest sympathy to his wife Krystyna, son Maciek and daughter Marta."
SDLP assembly member John Dallat said extended his "deepest sympathy to his family, the Polish government and especially to the Polish community here in Kilrea who recently met him when he choose St Columba's Primary School in our town as his first official engagement".
"He was a very kind person, inspirational, a brilliant Consul General and a serious loss not just to the Polish Community but to all of us," he said.
Funeral Mass for Mr Adler will be celebrated at St Brigid's Church on Derryvolgie Avenue in Belfast on Friday at 5pm.
