Update | UK plan to resettle entire Hong Kong population in Northern Ireland before Beijing handover 'a joke'

British officials poked fun at the idea of setting up a Celtic colony for Hongkongers in Northern Ireland before the handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, newly released documents reveal.

More than 30 years on, the bizarre plan has surfaced in official government documents - although one of the civil servants who considered the proposal told the BBC it was just a joke.

In 1989 a separate think tank also suggested Scotland could be another home for Hongkongers.

Academic Christie Davies, a sociologist and expert in humour, was the driving force behind the original proposal. He is currently in California for the International Society of Humour Studies.

He wrote a humorous piece in a Northern Ireland newspaper in 1983 which was apparently picked up by government officials at the time.

Britain's National Archives on Friday released a 1983 government file called "Replantation of Northern Ireland from Hong Kong", which showed officials discussed a far-fetched proposal to settle 5.5 million Hongkongers in a newly built "city state" between Coleraine and Londonderry prior to the handover.