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. He served as Deputy Lord Mayor in 1994–95 and then Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1996–97 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 Ian Paisley from 2004 until the latter's death in 2014. He was the maître-à-penser of a version of the Prehistory of Ireland based on the theory of the Cruthin. On 18 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 had 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 HighnessPrincess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester and established the Somme Heritage Centre, now Museum, at Conlig, in 1994. He founded the Ullans Academy, of which he served as 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 was 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 was President of the Belfast Civic Trust. 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. He was 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. Vice-President of The Somme Association, Adamson was a member of the boards of many other local public sector and voluntary civic organisations. In his later years, be became a Patron of the Dalaradia Group. Based in Newtownabbey they slowly evolved from the peace process as a vehicle for working class loyalists in County Antrim, many of whom were ex-combatants, to engage in the transformation of their communities after the troubles. On his website, Adamson described himself as "a British Unionist, an Irish Royalist and an Ulster Loyalist". After his death on the 9th January 2019, his funeral was attended by President of IrelandMichael D Higgins who he described as a friend. Van Morrison also attended the funeral playing Adamsons favourite song.
Works
Books
The Cruthin: A History of the Ulster Land and People, ;
The Identity of Ulster: The Land, the Language and the People, ;
The Ulster People: Ancient, Medieval and Modern,
William and the Boyne, ;
Dalaradia, Kingdom of the Cruthin, ; /
Bombs on Belfast The Blitz 1941 ;
The Bangor Book 2016 ed Kenneth Irvine, Translations from Mediæval Latin by Dr Ian Adamson OBE;
Papers
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 ;
The Ulster-Scots Movement, Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang 2010;
Somme Memories in Towards Commemoration: Ireland in war and revolution, 1912–1923, edited by John Horne and Edward Madigan ;
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 ;.
Accusations of Pseudo-History
In his 1974 book Cruthin: The Ancient Kindred, Adamson argues that the Cruthin settled Ireland before the Gaels; that the two groups were at war for centuries, seeing the tales of the Ulster Cycle as representations of this; and that many of the Cruthin were driven to Scotland after their defeat in the battle of Moira, only for their descendants to return to Ireland in the 17th century Plantation of Ulster. Historians reject his interpretations, with some accusing him of creating a sectarian narrative in which Ulster Protestants have a prior to claim to Ireland. Adamson denies this, claiming his interpretation of history offers "the hope of uniting the Ulster people at last". Prof. Stephen Howe of the University of Bristol argues that Adamsons mythography of the Cruthin was designed to provide ancient historical underpinnings for a militantly separate sense of Ulster identity. Archaeologists J.P. Mallory and T.E. McNeil have stated that claims of the Cruthin being a distinct ethnic group are archaeologically invisible and that "there is not a single object or site that an archaeologist can declare to be distinctly Cruthin", describing Adamsons claims as "quite remarkable". Much of Adamsons theories are based on the O'Rahilly's historical model put forward by Irish linguist T. F. O'Rahilly in 1946. Where Adamson differs is his claim that the Cruithne or Priteni were pre-Celtic as opposed to Celts themselves. However this model has since been refuted by noted authors such as Kenneth H. Jackson and John T. Koch. Archaeologists have consistently failed to support the theory, as archaeological evidence of O'Rahilly's four separate waves of Celtic settlements is lacking.
