The Irish in charge of Hong Kong

Henry Pottinger

Nine of Hong Kong's 28 governors were Irish, including the first of them, Belfast's Henry Pottinger (pictured). These days, his name is remembered on a street known for some of Hong Kong's finest eateries, but the Pottinger was a bull-headed warrior who pretty much ordered the British Crown to take on a permanent presence in Hong Kong.

He also negotiated the terms of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, ending the First Opium War, which led to Hong Kong becoming Crown property and means he remains reviled in China to this day.