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
Midlands Gateway Offaly and County Westmeath. The neighbouring counties are County Cavan, County Laois, County Longford, County Meath, County Monaghan, County Roscommon, and nearby Ulster counties. The principle urban centres concerned with the Midlands Gateway are Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar. The proposed combined County council strategy aspires to provide the basis for the development of a world class, knowledge-based and competitive gateway. The strategy is designed to create an integrated linked Gateway comprising Athlone, Tullamore and Mullingar together with the other surrounding towns in the region with the objective of developing internationally competitive Gateway. The designation and development of the Midlands gateway