Sir, - Garret FitzGerald's review of the circumstances of the first Dail Eireann of 80 years ago (Opinion, January 23rd), gave proper and overdue credit to the administrative miracles achieved by what were then the subversive departments of the first Dail.
He stressed rightly that the battle for hearts and minds fought out in the county council chambers and town hall corridors in the period 1919-21 was an effective complement to the more publicised tactics of ambush and reprisal being fought by the military forces of either side.
But how many are aware that this month of January marks another 80th anniversary in the story of Ireland's distinctive political culture? It was in January, 1919, that the first election to be held in Ireland under proportional representation took place. The elections the previous month for the first Dail were held under the "first past the post system", but after 1919, local and parliamentary elections took place under proportional representation.
Incidentally, that first trial of PR in Ireland in January, 1919, was for an election not to any national forum but to the borough council of Sligo - another example of the inventory contribution of local democracy in the embryonic days of the new State. - Yours, etc., Liam Kenny,
General Council of County Councils, Harold's Cross Road, Dublin 6W.