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
County Offaly covering radio, print and online. The radio station that covers Offaly is Midlands 103 which broadcasts across three counties, Offaly, Laois and Westmeath. The main online resource for news and sport for the county is the Offaly Express, www.offalyexpress.ie The print edition of the newspaper ceased publication in July 2012. The three main newspapers are the Midland/Tullamore Tribune, Offaly independent and Offaly Topic. The Midland/Tullamore Tribune and the Offaly Topic are published each Wednesday while the Offaly Independent is distributed across the county on Fridays. The 2006 population figure for County Offaly is the highest for the county since 1881.