The Irish in Britain, including those of Irish descent, make up a significant part of the UK population. Here, you will find news, entertainment, events, sports and features from the local Irish Post newspaper.

- The village of Ardagh in Co. Longford was the seat of St. Mel, a bishop appointed by St. Patrick. The actor Mel Gibson is named after this very saint — the actor’s middle name is Colmcille, after the saint who also founded a monastery in Longford.

- The Duke of Wellington wasn’t born in Meath, but was brought up here — apparently young Arthur Wellesley had a strong Meath accent until his teens when he was put into school in France. At the other end of the political spectrum socialist Jim Connell, who wrote The Red Flag, was born in the county.

-  At the Hill of Uisneach a board helpfully erected by the local council proclaims the importance of the hill — Seat of the High Kings, site of the Druidic Fire Cult, centre of Ancient Ireland, site of the Bealtaine and Samhain Festival. There are historians who argue that here is the very source of Halloween, the place where the first festival began, and the source of all other Samhain bonfires around Ireland.

- Maynooth’s museum celebrates the amazing Nicholas Callan (1799-1864), a priest and professor of natural philosophy at St. Patrick’s. Callan invented the wonderfully named self-exciting dynamo, as well as the induction coil. Something of a showman, Callan tested his devices by electrocuting local poultry. Or poultry in motion as he doubtless put it.

- Dubliner Dan Donnelly became the first recognised world boxing champion when he beat Englishman George Cooper in an epic bare knuckle bout fought at the Curragh in 1815. An obelisk at Donnelly’s Hollow marks the spot. What purports to be the boxer’s right arm is on display at the Hideout bar in Kilcullen.

- Try a walk up the Mote of Granard in Longford. Some 600 feet high, it offers a wide-screen view of the midlands with added sound reduction — you won’t hear a thing bar the chirping of a yellowhammer or the odd cow lowing in the meadows below.

- The villages of Mountmellick, Portarlington and Abbeyleix in Co. Laois are amongst the most picturesque in the country. Portarlington is a Huguenot settlement with some distinctive 18th-century architecture, while Mountmellick originated as a Quaker town in the 17th century, becoming a byword for lace manufacturing.

Beautiful Abbeyleix was founded in the 12th century and has been quietly minding its own business ever since (aside from the odd rebellion). Today you can enjoy the peace and tranquillity, as well as some of Ireland’s best appointed restaurants and cafes, friendliest pubs and most modern hotels. Suite dreams!

- Wicklow, called the Garden County, is one of Ireland’s most enchanting areas with the grandeur of the Wicklow Mountains (Braveheart and Micheal Collins were both filmed here), some of Europe’s finest gardens and the ecclesiastic splendour of Glendalough. The county also boasts engaging villages such as Enniskerry and Avoca, famed in poetry and song.

- Oliver Goldsmith country stretches into Co. Westmeath — Ballymahon, Ardagh and Edgworthstown all featured in the writer’s life and represent a wonderfully languid, literary day out. If it’s peace and tranquillity you’re after, let’s just say: this is not a part of the country facing congestion charges anytime in the near future.

- Every June the monumentally successful Kilkenny Cats Laughter Festival attracts some of the finest alternative comedians these islands have to offer. When a local comedian first suggested a comedy festival in Kilkenny everybody laughed at him. Well, they’re still laughing.

- Kilkenny Castle is up there with Edinburgh Castle, the Tower of London or Mad Ludwig’s Castle in Bavaria — it’s one of the great castles of the world. The Long Gallery might grab your attention because of its extensive portrait collection of the Butlers, the big shout in these parts from 1391 until 1935 — and arguably beyond, because Princess Diana was a descendant.

- Nobody is quite sure who first vowed to take Ireland by Hook or by Crooke — contrary to popular belief it probably wasn’t Cromwell — but the phrase is a reference to the settlement of Crooke on the Waterford side of the Barrow estuary and Hook Head on the other. But by hook or by crook try to visit this shining example of Irish technology.