Between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nationalisms
We in Ireland tend to view the Catalan desire for independence as benign but, as with any nationalist movement, the reality is more complex
Iwas living in Madrid when Real beat Juventus to win their seventh Champions’ League in 1998 after a 32-year drought. When the match ended, a Madrid friend picked up his phone and dialled the Barcelona prefix, followed by a random number. “Hello?” some stranger in Barcelona answered. “Fuck you!” shouted my friend. “We won!”
There was always hostility between Madrid and Barcelona but, if not necessarily good-humoured, it was at least a steady-state ...
