Readers Blog: Catalans should adopt French policy on difference

In her article of October 7, under the headline “Ireland relied on support of others...it mustn’t look away as Catalans chart own freedom”, Marina Devlin compared the armed Spanish police disruption of the Catalan independence referendum to the 1916 Rising.

This disruption, she said, was “reminiscent of Britain’s overreaction to 1916”.

So if, because of this overreaction, Catalonia proceeds towards independence, as Ireland gradually did after 1916, it will be because its marriage to Spain was mainly based on monetary well-being, rather than on friendship and appreciation of cultural differences.