Northern Ireland Bank Holidays

St Patrick’s Day on 17 March marks the patron saint of Ireland and is observed across Northern Ireland. The Battle of the Boyne, also known as Orangemen’s Day, falls on 12 July and commemorates the 1690 battle; it is a significant date in the Northern Ireland calendar and is marked by parades. Both are bank holidays in Northern Ireland only — neither is observed in England & Wales or Scotland.

Like the fixed-date holidays elsewhere, these two get a substitute day when they fall at a weekend. If 17 March or 12 July lands on a Saturday or Sunday, the bank holiday moves to the following Monday, and it is that substitute date that counts for pay and deadlines.

Because Northern Ireland keeps the entire England & Wales list — including Easter Monday, which Scotland drops — and then adds these two, it has the longest bank holiday calendar of the three UK regions, and correspondingly the fewest working days in a typical year.

A contract governed by Northern Ireland law should be counted on the Northern Ireland calendar, and cross-border arrangements with the Republic of Ireland need particular care, since the two jurisdictions share some dates but not all. For payroll, the March and July dates sit outside the clusters that most UK-wide systems are tuned to, so they are easy to overlook when planning BACS submissions and pay runs for Northern Ireland staff.

For the full picture, see our guides on UK bank holidays and bank holidays in payroll. To count working days on the Northern Ireland calendar, choose it in the calculator below.