We are now two years into the new century but we were looking back the other day to the end of the 20th century. We had a choice to make as part of a worldwide Car of the Century jury - to pick the most outstanding car in that 1900-1999 period.
The winner, of course, was the Ford Model T but it wasn't our choice, even though it was the first car that brought motoring to the masses. Adolf Hitler was so impressed that he set about doing the same thing in Germany leading ultimately to the 'People's Car' or Beetle.
Our choice for Car of the Century was the Citroën DS, which actually took third place. Elsewhere in MOTORS today there's a road test on the new Citroën C3 supermini. It's impossible in writing about thoroughly modern Citroëns not to allude to their past because they were so eccentric, so idiosyncratic.
The DS19, unveiled at the Paris motor show 47 years ago, maintained the tradition: it was utterly different from anything else there. Perhaps the most complicated European car that had been made by that time, it was also rated the most comfortable worldwide.
Founder Andre Citroën, a gambler at heart, lost control of his company in 1935 and died shortly afterwards. Rational management was introduced, but Citroën's extraordinary boldness in design and engineering survived him.
The DS appeared superbly futuristic but underneath that space-age styling, it was even more unorthodox: hydraulic power operated the steering, brakes, clutch and gears, and there was also Citroën's unique hydropneumatic suspension system.
Front-wheel-drive, later "discovered" by every rival, had been the norm for Citroën for two decades.
The DS was almost deliberately quirky, with its button-on-the-floor brake pedal and single spoke steering wheel. Delightfully different, it became a symbol of France.
Heroically, it saved Gen de Gaulle from an OAS assassination attempt when his driver was able to press on despite a rear tyre shot to pieces - a scene memorably recreated in the movie The Day of the Jackal.
The DS scored in the 1966 Monte Carlo rally. Its victory caused enormous offence to British Ford and Mini teams. Their cars were disqualified over a minor lighting regulation infringement and they claimed that the DS wiring was exactly the same.
In 1968, a DS was on the point of winning the epic London-Sydney rally when a local mystic put a curse on the French car. A few minutes later, cruising towards the finish, it was eliminated in a bizarre road accident, allowing a Hillman Hunter through to win. Citroën claimed a measure of revenge when a DS won the World Cup Rally easily ahead of three Peugeot 504s.
The DS was the favoured car of a famous Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Charles McQuaid. He didn't drive it but was always a back seat passenger. He had a succession of DS models, supplied by the Ever Ready garage in Donnybrook.
James Wyse, managing director of Gallic Distributors, Citroën's Irish importers, has a splendidly restored 1973 DS 23 which the company imported from Britain. It's very "mod con" with swivelling headlamps.
Wyse estimates at least 30 or 40 DSs are in working order here. That seems at variance with Britain which has an enthusiastic Citroën Car Club. The club's estimate of working DS models is about 200, which Wyse thinks is surprisingly low.