19 Facts About Ian Adamson

Ian Adamson OBE was an Ulster Unionist Party politician and paediatrician, who was the Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1996 to 1997, having been Deputy Lord Mayor from 1994 to 1995.

Ian Adamson additionally served as a Belfast City Councillor for the Victoria DEA from 1989 to 2011.

Ian Adamson was born in 1944 in Bangor, County Down and raised in the nearby village of Conlig.

Ian Adamson 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.

Ian Adamson was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1998 for services to local government.

Ian Adamson was an MLA for Belfast East from 1998 until 2003.

Ian Adamson was personal physician and advisor on history and culture to Rev Ian Paisley from 2004 until the latter's death in 2014.

Ian Adamson was the leading advocate of a version of the prehistory of Ireland based on the theory of the Cruthin.

Ian Adamson had a special interest in the long-term unemployed and became the founder secretary of Farset Youth and Community Development in 1981.

Ian Adamson founded the Ullans Academy, of which he served as President, followed by the Ulster-Scots Language Society in 1992.

Ian Adamson became the first Rector and founder Chairman of the Ulster Scots Academy in 1994.

Ian Adamson was a specialist in community child health, 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.

Ian Adamson was awarded a special commendation by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Vice-President of the Somme Association, Ian Adamson was a member of the boards of many other local public sector and voluntary civic organisations.

On his website, Ian Adamson described himself as "a British Unionist, an Irish Royalist and an Ulster Loyalist".

Ian Adamson argues that they were at war with the Irish Gaels for centuries, seeing the story of the Tain Bo Cuailnge as representing this; and argues that most of the Cruthin were driven to Scotland after the Battle of Moira, only for their descendants to return 1,000 years later in the Plantation of Ulster.

Ian Adamson's suggestion is that the Gaelic Irish are not really native to Ulster, and that the Ulster Scots have merely returned to their ancient lands.

Ian Adamson's theory has been adopted by some Ulster loyalists and Ulster Scots activists to counter Irish nationalism, and was promoted by elements in the Ulster Defence Association.

Ian Adamson said his theory offers "the hope of uniting the Ulster people at last".