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Dr. Ian Adamson OBE is a British Unionist, an Irish Royalist and an Ulster Loyalist. He was born on 28 June 1944 in Bangor, County Down and reared in the nearby village of Conlig. He reads in 15 languages and has spoken publicly in French, German, Gaeilic or Gaedhilg Uladh (Ulster Gaelic), Ullans (Ulster Scots) and Lakota Sioux at the Ulster Tower in Thiepval and at Guillemont, France; in Dutch at the 16th (Irish) Memorial at Wijtschate (Wytschaete), Flanders, Belgium; in Turkish at Gallipoli (Çanakkale) in Turkey; in Mandarin Chinese at the Chinese Welfare Centre in Belfast and in Cymric (Welsh), Ulster Gaelic and Ullans in the Northern Ireland Assembly. He has regularly attended the Aisling Award Ceremony in Belfast, at which he has also spoken in Ulster Gaelic. He was awarded the Gradaim na hAislinge, Aisling Roll of Honour Award in 2008.

He was an Ulster Unionist member of Belfast City Council from 1989, becoming that Party’s first Honorary Historian, until his retirement from active politics in 2011, the year he became High Sheriff of Belfast and convened a Posse Comitatus. He had served as Deputy Lord Mayor in 1994/95 and then Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1996/1997 and was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty The Queen in 1998 for services to local government. He was an MLA for Belfast East from 1998 until 2003. He was the personal physician and advisor on history and culture to Rt Hon Dr Ian Paisley PC, the Lord Bannside (First Minister of Northern Ireland 2007 – 08), from 2004 until the latter’s death in 2014.

On 18th July 1978 he was accepted as a Member of the International Medical Association of Lourdes for services to the disabled children and young people of the Falls Parish in Belfast. He has a special interest in the long-term unemployed and became the founder secretary of Farset Youth and Community Development in 1981. In 1989, he became founder Chairman of the Somme Association based at Craigavon House, Circular Road, Belfast, under the auspices of Her Royal Highness Princess Alice Duchess of Gloucester and established the Somme Heritage Centre, now Museum, at Conlig in 1994. He founded the Ullans Academy, of which he is now President, followed by the Ulster-Scots Language Society in 1992 and became the first Rector and founder Chairman of the Ulster Scots Academy in 1994. He is a founder member of the Cultural Traditions Group, the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council and the Ultach Trust, and served as a member of the Ulster-Scots Agency 2003-12. He is presently President of the Belfast Civic Trust.

Dr Adamson is a Specialist in Community Child Health (Community Paediatrics) being a member of the Faculty of Community Health and was awarded the fellowship of the Royal Institute of Public Health for his services to the health of young people in 1998. He was also awarded a special commendation by His Royal Highness Prince Charles Prince of Wales. He was an Executive Board Member of the London-based Association of Port Health Authorities, 2005–11 (Chairman of the Border Inspection Post Committee, 2005–06 and Imported Food Committee, 2006–11). He has a special interest in the Mohawk Indians and holds wisdom-keeper status among the Lakota Sioux nation. He is librarian and serving officer of the Commandery of the Ards, the Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem and a former member of the Court of the University of Ulster. He has published several books on the ancient British people known as Cruthin (Pretani) whom he feels should be respected as the primary ancestors of the people of the British Isles. He is a partner in Pretani Associates, consultants in Common Identity, founded by Helen Brooker in 2012 and also Patron of the Dalaradia Group.

Works by Dr Ian Adamson OBE

Books

  • The Cruthin: A History of the Ulster Land and People, (Newtownards: Nosmada Books 1974, 2nd edn. Bangor: Donard Publishing Co. 1978, 3rd edn. Bangor: Pretani Press 1986, 5th imp 1995 ) ISBN 0-9503461-0-1, 4th edn Newtownards: Colourpoint Books, an imprint of Colourpoint Creative Ltd, 2014) ISBN 978-1-78073-066-0
  • Bangor, Light of the world, (Bangor: Fairview Press 1979, 2nd edn. Belfast: Pretani Press 1987) ISBN 0-948868-06-6, 3rd edn. Newtownards: Colourpoint Books, 2015) ISBN 978-1-78073-093-6
  • The Battle of Moira, [ed.,] Sir Samuel Ferguson, Congal (Newtownards: Nosmada Books 1980) Introduction by Dr Ian Adamson OBE
  • The Identity of Ulster: The Land, the Language and the People, (Belfast : Pretani Press 1982, 2nd edn. 1987, 5th imp. 1995 ) ISBN 0-948868-04-X
  • The Ulster People: Ancient, Medieval and Modern, (Bangor: Pretani Press 1991) ISBN 0-948868-13-9
  • 1690: William and the Boyne, (Newtownards: Pretani Press1995) ISBN 0-948868-20-1
  • Dalaradia, Kingdom of the Cruthin, (Belfast: Pretani Press 1998) HB ISBN 0-948868-26-0 PB ISBN 0-948868-25-2
  • Bombs on Belfast The Blitz 1941 (Newtownards: Colourpoint Books in association with Belfast Telegraph 2011, First published Belfast:Pretani Press 1984) ISBN 978-1-906578-91-6
  • The Bangor Book 2016 ed Kenneth Irvine, (Ards and North Down Borough Council) Translations from Mediæval Latin by Dr Ian Adamson OBE ISBN 978-1-5272-0103-3

Papers

The Ulster-Scottish Connection in Scotland and Ulster, edited by Ian S Wood (Edinburgh: Mercat Press 1994) ISBN1873644 191

The Ullans Academy in Legislation, Literature and Sociolinguistics: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland, edited by John Kirk and Dónall P. Ó Baoill (Belfast: Cló Ollscoil na Banríona/ Queen’s University 2005) ISBN 0-85389-874-X

The Ulster-Scots Movement. A Personal Account in Language Issues Ireland, France, Spain edited by Wesley Hutchinson and Clíona Ni Ríordáin ( Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang 2010) ISBN 978-90-5201-649-8

Somme Memories in Towards Commemoration: Ireland in war and revolution 1912-1923 edited by John Horne and Edward Madigan (Dublin, Royal Irish Academy 2013) ISBN 978-1-908996-17-6

Common Identity in Ulster-Scots in Northern Ireland Today: Language, Culture Community/ L’Ulster-Scots en Irelande du Nord aujourd’hui: langue, culture, communauté compiled by Wesley Hutchinson (Rennes, Presses Universitaires 2014) ISBN 978-2-7535-2887-1

Forewords

The Manifesto of Christ and other Sermons, Brian Smeaton (Belfast: Farset Co-Operative Press) 1980 ISBN 0 9504292 1 X

The Row You Know: Memories of Old Sandy Row, Donna McCann (Belfast: Sandy Row Community Centre Committee 1997) ISBN 0 9530535 0 4

Stormont: A new building for a new era in Stormont – The House on the Hill, Jack Gallagher (Belfast: Booklink 2008) ISBN978-1-906886- 00-1

Ulster Scots, A Short Reference Grammar, Ian James Parsley (Belfast: Ultonia Publishing 2012) ISBN 1-4681666-3-8

Colonel Paddy: The Man Who Dared, Patrick Marrinan (Newtownards: Colourpoint Books 2013) ISBN978-1-78073-041-7

The Old Testament in Scots Vols. 1 & 3 Tr. by Gavin Falconer and Ross G. Arthur (Tonbridge: Wordzworth Publishing 2014) ISBN 978-1-78324-005-0 and 978-1-78324-006-7

Northern Ireland: Our Lesser Known History, Hugh Forde (Belfast: Bannside Library Ltd, 2015) ISBN 978-0-9934157-0-8

References

espaces de l’imaginaire unioniste nord-irlandais Wesley Hutchinson (Caen, Presses Universitaires 1999) ISBN: 2-84133-100-8

The Elite Promotion of Ulster-Scots Identity, Origins, History and Culture, Working Papers Volume 1, Martin Hay (Institute of Irish Studies, The University of Ulster 2009)

 

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