During World War II she performed with Henryk Wars' troupe and later with the Polska Parada (Polish Parade) band, entertaining the Polish Armed Forces in the West (commanded by General Władysław Anders, her future husband).

Shortly after her birth, her family migrated eastward to what was then designated the Ukrainian People's Republic, and her father became chaplain of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and later was a priest in the villages Sapohiv and Bryn, which shortly became part of Poland.

In 1926 the family moved to Lwów (today Lviv), where Iryna went to a Greek Catholic gymnasium and Ukrainian trading school.

In her youth she participated in Ukrainian Scouts Organisation, as did her brother Anatol (1909–1982), who was in the same group as Roman Shukhevych.

[6] In 1948, she married the decorated Polish General and World War II hero, Władysław Anders.