Who were The Cruthin? That’s a question I was asked once upon a time by Van Morrison and I hadn’t a clue, but I was able to point Van (and myself) to an absorbing book by academic Dr Ian Adamson on the subject of these, the earliest inhabitants of Ireland and Britain.

And today I can tell you that to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original release, an updated edition of The Cruthin tome (Colourpoint £9.99) has just been published.

The re-appearance of such an influential book is fully justified because over those four decades, Ian’s writings and research have never ceased to provoke debate.

And this author has been hard at work bringing these ancient peoples bang up-to-date, if you follow my drift.

Van, like myself, will be delighted to find out any fresh information about what is claimed to be a contentious and controversial history of the first Irish folk even if, until Ian came along, the Cruthin identity was being deliberately ignored.

He will tell readers of the new Cruthin that the fact that not enough is still not known about these ancients is a tragic consequence of Irish history itself.

And he should know – a retired medical doctor, Ian is a member of the UUP and a former lord mayor of Belfast. He was also High Sheriff a few years back.

Belfast Telegraph 13/12/2014