How far away can somewhere be and still count as local?

An Irish friend called a town thirty kilometres away “local.” Another person described someone living two roads over as “not local” because their family only arrived in the area thirty years ago.

So apparently:

- distance is flexable

- time is not

- nobody explains the border

When people in rural Ireland say a shop, person, or event is local, what are they actually meassuring? Geography, county, family history, or simply whether everyone knows the same names?