On this day, 40 years ago, at the age of 29, I published my first book Cruthin – the Ancient Kindred, which I had written in 2 Watson Street, Sandy Row, Belfast.

 I had studied the Cruthin since childhood in Bangor Grammar School, which I attended with David Trimble, to whose leadership I remained faithful. It appeared to me that the history of this important people was being suppressed by the Academic Establishment, because, although they spoke Gaelic in the earliest documentary period in Ireland, they were the original British of these islands, the British Isles.

Today I have become convinced that I was indeed correct in my assessment of the Academic Elite. I had thought that the Cruthin could become the basis of the Common Identity of all the people of Northern Ireland. And so I still think…But the Academic Elite have worked tirelessly to prevent that…So it is now necessary for us to draw back, take stock and face down the Academic Establishment if we are to bring lasting peace to our country…

This year is an important year as the Centenary of the Great War….But let us look forward, rather than backward, using a broader perspective of our past to create a new beginning for all our people…For we are the Children of the Cruthin…And Liberation is our song…