Sir, - Frank McDonald's commentary (Opinion, December 29th) on the issues faced by the three "new" Dublin county councils in forging an identify is timely given that 1999 marks the centenary of the birth of the county councils of Ireland. These have done much to reinforce the intensity of county loyalty which is such a hallmark of the Irish psyche at home and abroad.
The adoption by the GAA, following its foundation in 1884, of the county as its unit of organisation was central to inspiring the concept of county identity in the minds of the Irish public. The counties had existed for centuries previously but largely as a unit of administration for the gentry.
However, if the original popularisation of the county derived from sporting loyalties it was embedded in the Irish mind by the formation of the county councils in 1899. The local elections of that year were the first time that the public had a chance to participate in democratic elections for any level of government. The resulting county councils, coupled with the keen attentiveness of a largely county-based provincial press, resulted in the consolidation of the county as a unit not just of government but of an almost tribal loyalty and identification.
True, in modern times the spread of suburbia has tended to blur some of the distinctiveness of counties located close to growing cities. However, the strongly proclaimed identity of the people of say, south-east Clare or south Kilkenny, confronted by the pressures of neighbouring cities, confirms a well-known truism in Irish life: that people who live near borders often have the sharpest sense of identity.
As for Frank McDonald's suggestion that the "new" Dublin counties need football teams before they can be considered to have come of age, this is a question surely for Croke Park rather than for the Custom House. - Yours, etc., Liam Kenny, Director,
General Council of County Councils, Harold's Cross Road, Dublin 6W.