Some time back, on a very quiet Sunday, I started making up a holiday file and have attached it in case it's a help for others. I think it's OK and has worked here so far.
Also contains some entries for Wales, Scotland, NI and some for ROI extracted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_the_United_Kingdom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_the_United_Kingdom)
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland) but not so sure about these.
Additions and corrections welcome.
Thanks, the file is now part of the contrib directory