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Davies said it was "obviously humorous".Photo: SMP Pictures

Hong Kong 'Celtic colony' plan in Northern Ireland before 1997 was merely a good laugh, says academic behind the idea

Don behind the plan to send 5m Hongkongers to N Ireland 'amazed' it was taken seriously

The academic behind a "joke" plan to send Hongkongers to Northern Ireland in the run-up to the city's return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 has spoken of his "amazement" that it had been taken seriously.

British sociologist and humour expert Christie Davies also revealed yesterday it was the exodus of well-educated Hongkongers to Canada in the 1980s that triggered the "Celtic colony" idea.

Last week, newly-released documents from the British National Archives revealed civil servants in London had taken the idea seriously, if only fleetingly.

Davies' idea was first published in on October 9, 1983. It was then published in the two weeks later.

"It is obviously humorous," Davies told the by email from California, where he is attending the annual conference of the International Society of Humour Studies.

"Only now did I learn it had been taken seriously. I am amazed. It came as a great surprise and gave me a good laugh," said the retired academic, who was at the time professor of sociology at the University of Reading in England.

Davies said that during a holiday to Hong Kong in 1982 he had sensed the tense atmosphere among locals as the 1997 handover loomed.

"What worried everyone then was the thought of authoritarian rule, with Hong Kong politicians becoming Beijing's puppets and trying to impose Putonghua on Cantonese speakers," he said.

"People were leaving for Vancouver in Canada. I thought, these industrious, intelligent, educated Chinese should come to the United Kingdom … Northern Ireland needed them most, and is thinly populated, as are Wales and Scotland. England is already overcrowded."

Davies said he had been inundated by messages from angry Irish people who had taken offence to the proposal.

The government files, called "Replantation of Northern Ireland from Hong Kong", showed officials discussed settling 5.5 million Hongkongers in a newly built "city state" between Coleraine and Londonderry.

A former senior British official said the idea was merely civil servants "seeking some light relief at a difficult time in Northern Ireland". David Snoxell told the BBC the exchange "was a spoof between colleagues".

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: HK 'Celtic colony' idea was merely 'a spoof'
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