Think twice the next time you take a look at your jacket sleeve (the way you do, when you're in a meeting, and you're bored). If it's a tweed jacket from Magee of Donegal, there were probably 60 operations that went into its making. Hundreds of hands. A complexity of skills.

To walk down the production line in the Magee clothing factory, which produces 3,600 sleeved garments a week, is to be gobsmacked by the extraordinary speed and deftness of each specialist: from pattern cutter to pocket maker. A bit of this and a bit of that and a classic is born. But first, a tour of the weaving mill, where design swatches the size of train tickets are transformed into vast bulks of raw, woven cloth on high-tech looms, spun from a confusion of yarns. As the fabric emerges, each inch is inspected and mended and inspected again and then put though a labour of beatings: washed, dried, washed again, tugged, pressed to perfection and stored. Everywhere, there's the smell of wet wool. Vast rows of colour coded cloth, tweeds, wool mixes, cotton and silk - about 600 cloths in all.

You will find these cloths in the most exalted places - on the walls of Ralph Lauren shops, for example, where mere wallpaper wouldn't suffice. Instead, rooms encased in lush, red tartan wool exude that vital RL air of the manoir manque. Your hard-won Armani jacket may have its origins in Donegal - not Milan; likewise your trusty Donna Karan number, your Burberry coat lining, lush Max Mara coat, slim Margaret Howell skirt or sharp Hugo Boss suit. And that's not forgetting your Magee hacking jacket.

So, if Magee of Donegal can produce the signature fabric for the Ralph Lauren empire, doesn't it figure that Magee of Donegal is destined to become Ireland's own iconic lifestyle dresser?

Give it time, gents.

It would seem only a matter of time, and time is something this century-old family business understands. "Our primary strength is as a niche clothing and fabric manufacturer, we never want to lose sight of that," says production manager, Stephen McCormack, who has been with the company for 30 years and has helped usher in the prestigious global buyers. While developing their own retail base may seem like an obvious and almost inevitable step, they insist that they are primarily focused on producing the cloth that is unique to them. They have, however, designed in-store shopfronts, bought the dressers and settles, the fittings and the fixtures needed for concession-style selling, so I think it is fair to expect a Magee store here and there in the early years of the next century. You've perhaps heard the Magee story before, but it's worth retelling. In 1866, a John Magee sold his shop in Donegal town to a Robert Temple, who then guided the company through the tough beginnings of the century, helped by the knitters and hand weavers of south-west Donegal. He was succeeded by his son Howard Temple, a recent recipient of an honorary doctorate from Trinity, who cottoned on to the idea of ready-to-wear, coaxed the British out of their 50-shilling "demob outfits" and dressed them with an Irish twist. He also opened a factory in Antrim, providing employment on both sides of the Border.

Ready-to-wear matured by the 1970s and 80s, when Germans and Continentals made up the larger part of the market. That's when Howard's son Lynn was put through the mill, so to speak, where he remains today, styling a wider range of fabrics with state-of-the-art technology. The group's turnover is now about £20 million, some 590 people are employed and 80 per cent of Magee weaving is exported. These are challenging times on the River Eske. The impending millennium bug has required the attention of 15 people - production instructions are transmitted via phone between the two factories - and this has also involved a £1 million investment in new software. Patterns, sizes and details are completely programmed online.

Lynn Temple is an articulate Donegal advocate, leading tpo the occasional letter to this paper: "As a native of Donegal who lives in and loves the county, its typography, its location and its wonderful people, I find it distressing to see the tag `disadvantaged' being so frequently and generally attached to the county at present . . .

"The indiginous skills developed through generations of clever and adaptable people who wove, knitted or chrocheted to augment harsh argricultural conditions should not be undersold. These skills deserve support, as when harnessed to modern technology and high levels of design and ,marketing investment, a good future can be secured.

"The Government and its agencies must redouble their efforts to maintain and develop this employment - not just by putting bread in the begging bowl but by creating the physical and economic environment for this and other labour intensive industries."

Meanwhile, the Government-appointed task force announced after the Fruit of the Loom closure has yet to report . . . So what's next and what will the next generation of Temples get up to? ("I sometimes wish I had taken more time out after university before coming into the family business," says Lynn a mite ruefully, but you hardly believe him as he speaks of an enchanted life). Well, for the moment they're still in school, but watch this space.

A new generation of buyers meanwhile, both Irish and international, is being lured by the design-led "John Magee" label. The tweed has a new twist. There are great, big funnelneck sweaters, slinky shift dresses, drawstring trousers for the less than slinky, steed coats, long-line waistcoats and bolero jackets. The colours for spring are pale versions of rich winter tweeds. The fabrics have been modified too with a mix of linens and silk wool; cool wools and woven silks. The look is long, loose, casual and young.

But hey, if you really want to challenge your notion of what constitutes a Magee suit, check out the formal wear which has been gizzed up in anticipation of the millennium. Frock coats worthy of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. The next generation of Temples has quite a cloth to cut. If they inherit the family's determination to both sustain and develop one of the great traditions of Donegal, they may push the boat out further and sail into the US market while all things Irish remain in vogue. It's a fascinating story to follow.

John Magee stockists include: Carters of Belfast; Magee of Done- gal; House of Ireland, Dublin; Louis Copeland, Dublin; Saville, Cork; Newman Classics, Kilkenny; MacBees, Killarney.