GAA and local identity

[seafoid]

This was in an article about commuter estates in Ratoath co Dub/Meath today.

"And what really impressed me was the sense of identity, the sense of place, that the Irish have. A lot of it – I discovered much later – was down to the GAA." 

How much of your identifying with where you are from is down to those jerseys? It must be a bigger thing up north where the counties don't mean anything else now.  I think a lot about places in terms of GAA. eg Wicklow may be a very desirable place to put on the makeup and go to the beach in high heels but they are forever shite at football and nothing can take that away,  regardless of the perfume.  Mayo of course has that special link to football. The clinical ruthlessness of the black and amber . Tipp's faded glory. The joy when Derry won their all-Ireland and what it meant.