ABSTRACT
In any event, at the height of classical European nationalism, from Co. Clare on the West Coast of Ireland, and for a long way eastward, "nationality" was a matter of local concern. For nationalism, particularly in that part of the world where it originated and was first inscribed in history, is not only an academic question for social scientists wondering about its applicability as a model of or for human behavior, in Europe or anywhere else. It is also a political question among those who wonder whether they should struggle for the further institutionalization of Europe. The positive side of the absence of the major symbols of a triumphant European nationalism is that it leaves room for the constituent nations of Europe to continue to symbolize themselves as different and independent on a universal stage.
