Irish Examiner view: Free Catalonia hasn’t gone away, you know

With their fragile alliances, and the need to reconcile with recent history, there are parallels between Ireland and Spain

Carles Puigdemont, the exiled former president of the Catalan government, said his Junts party is 'neck and neck' with the governing Socialists in polling ahead of the elections on May 12. 

The first overseas head of state welcomed to Dublin by Taoiseach Simon Harris was Spanish premier Pedro Sánchez.

No doubt amities were revisited this week in the two-day Brussels summit as the leaders pressed their shared views on the Middle East crisis upon their colleagues in the EU.