Sir, – Frank McNally sees a great irony in the fidelity to county borders shown by GAA followers and believes Queen Elizabeth I would have been astonished ("What the English did for us – An Irishman's Diary on our love of county boundaries", January 22nd).
The real irony, as is demonstrated by Paul MacCotter in his book Medieval Ireland – Territorial, Political and Economic Divisions, may be that the county boundaries established for the most part in Tudor times may actually coincide with the boundaries of the old cantreds and trícha céts that existed in Ireland about 400 years earlier at the time of the Norman invasion and of which there were 184. Each had its own petty king and each county contains several of the old units.
MacCotter has prepared an atlas of Ireland showing how the present county boundaries coincide with the old cantred and trícha cét boundaries.
In all likelihood, these boundaries in turn coincide with boundaries of greater antiquity.
So the reality is that those supporting their county team are supporting a territory that has commanded the loyalty of their ancestors back through the millennia, provided, of course, that their family roots are that deep. – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIG MURRAY,
Dundrum,
Dublin 16.