Counties of the United Kingdom six historic counties of Northern Ireland are no longer in use for administrative purposes. Combined with the boroughs of Belfast and Derry, the counties do serve for organisational purposes within government, and often with private businesses and sporting clubs. The counties of Northern Ireland are all within the historic province of Ulster, which includes an additional three other counties from the Republic of Ireland: Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan. In Scotland, there are 33 local government counties, created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, they were abolished in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, in favour of regions
2008 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship exceptions of Antrim, Carlow, Clare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, London, Sligo, Waterford and Wicklow. (These nine teams played in the Tommy Murphy Cup as a result of their participation in Division 4 of the 2009 National Football League.) The sixteen teams competing in the first round were Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Down, Kildare, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary, Tyrone and Westmeath. Unlike previous years, teams that played each other in their provincial championships were permitted to meet again in the qualifiers. The first round draw took place on 29 June 2008. The first team drawn had home venue provided