Castleknock-born Daragh McCarthy had a yearning for travel in the years after graduating from Waterford Institute of Technology and UCD. It took him to the southern hemisphere, including a three year stint working in New Zealand.
When he arrived back in Dublin in 2018, he encountered a challenging rental market and decided to take his chances somewhere else in Europe. Barcelona, which he had visited briefly, seemed an attractive choice and he secured a position in Google, later moving to Gartner, before joining his current employer, Benevity, a software firm that facilitates companies and their employees in donating to and volunteering for non-profits.
McCarthy has found Barcelona a welcoming city and feels at home there. Language wasn’t a barrier, either, while he developed his linguistic skills.
“It’s an easy city to settle into and there’s a large expat community from all over the world. The perception is that Barcelona is a big city, and it certainly is in population terms (around 1.7 million people live in the metropolitan area) but it is also quite concentrated. Many of the building are seven storeys high so it doesn’t have the sprawl of Dublin.
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It’s easy to navigate too with good metro, bus and tram systems.
“In Barcelona you can get by without much Spanish when you first arrive and I know people who have been here for over 10 years and still don’t speak a word, but it really helps if you can develop your proficiency as you go along, as it opens up a whole new world.
“Rents have gone up significantly and availability has gone down even in the time that I have been here. Tourism has been growing steadily in recent years and, since the pandemic, you’ve had a surge in people who want to live here for a year.
“A digital visa system, similar to the one that has been operating in Portugal for many years, has seen a wave of people coming from the United States and Australia, among other places.”
Over-tourism has become an issue and there have been isolated incidents of open hostility to visitors reported in the media, but McCarthy says he has not come across widespread antipathy to tourists in the city.
Nonetheless, there has been a concerted attempt in recent times by the city authorities to reduce the number of short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb. Thousands of non-licensed rental properties have been removed from the market and this summer, Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced that, from November 2028, tourist-use apartments won’t be allowed within the metropolitan area.
While rents have increased, they definitely remain more affordable than Dublin and the cost of living is generally cheaper as wages are lower. “Some cafes have opened up targeting the tourist and short-stay markets and they are charging €3.50 for a latte. That’s extortionate. In a local cafe, you’d pay just €1.50 for the same thing,” McCarthy says.
Barcelona’s favourable climate facilitates outdoor dining for most of the year, and McCarthy enjoys spending time on the terraces of the city’s tapas bars, soaking up the atmosphere with friends in the warm evenings.
“There are a lot of street parties, festival and parades from April through to September. The city also has a really vibrant arts scene, and you can really feel that culture when you talk to local people here who are very artistic in nature. Catalonia has so much to offer and is one of the most beautiful places in Europe. An hour’s journey gets you amazing beaches, forests and mountains.”
McCarthy makes the 15-minute commute to work by metro every day from the suburbs into Benevity’s city centre offices. His position as growth marketing manager involves managing the organisation’s paid digital advertising activities across the globe. The 1,000 strong Canadian-owned multinational firm helps its clients, mainly large corporates, to run their social impact programmes through specialist software that it licenses.
“The culture here is the strongest of all the companies I’ve worked for. Our employees also advocate for a lot of the causes that are helped by our clients. People are very active in volunteering. It’s nice to work for an organisation whose north star is to make the world a better place.”
One of the few downsides of living in southern Europe is the intense heat in the summer months, he says, with some very high temperatures. But it is a price McCarthy is willing to pay for a city he truly loves.
“There are times when I’ve considered moving to a new city just to get a change of scene. I’ve compared Barcelona to other cities and, for me, nothing has ever stacked up as being as good as what I have here.”
