Suite of historic meeting rooms

For many the Mem was 'the' venue to enjoy a dance in days gone by, but for many generations it has been a meeting house for the Loyal Orders. I am indebted to General Secretary of the ABOD, Billy Moore for patiently answering all my questions about the whys and wherefores of this historic suite of rooms.

The first thing you notice as you tour the various Meeting Rooms is that while they all have the same basic layout; they all have their own unique colour schemes. The Apprentice Boys Meeting Room is a rich crimson.

For those unfamiliar with the 'hierarchy' involved in the ABOD movement, and the various 'Parent Clubs' the basics, as explained by my patient guide Billy Moore, is as follows: There are eight Parent Clubs that make up the Apprentice Boys organisations, reflecting the number of regiments that were formed inside the walls of Londonderry during the Siege.

"Everything the Apprentice Boys does throughout its calendar year reflects on the Siege of Derry. So there are eight Regiments, formed inside the Walls. Not only do the eight Parent Clubs sit in here, but the General Committee, which is the governing body, meets in this room five times a year as well," he says.

The layout in all of the meeting rooms is the same. The Governor's Chair faces the Lt Governor's Chair (on the floor facing the dais), and the Lay Chaplain, Secretary and Treasurer sit in the remaining prominent seats at the head of the room and the 'ordinary rank and file' members sit on the chairs around the edge of the room.

Parent Clubs

The eight Parent Clubs are: The Walker Club (1844), Mitchelburne Club (1721), No Surrender Club (1865), Browning Club (1876), Baker Club (1927), Campsie Club (1950), Murray Club (1847) and the Apprentice Boys of Derry Club, which is the oldest. To complicate things slightly, affiliated to each of the eight Parent Clubs are a series of 'Branch Clubs', which can be found throughout Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, England and Canada. And, yes, it is true that if you want to be 'made' a full-fledged Apprentice Boy, the initiation ceremony can only take place within the City Walls. Prior to that service no member can hold high office within their branch club. Each of the Clubs have their own 'logo' and, for example, the Campsie Club's is the canon...oh, and the crimson colour of this particular Meeting Room symbolises the spilled blood of the Apprentice Boys' forefathers.

Pool of blood

In fact, it is believed Mitchelburne found a piece of cloth on the Walls, dipped it in a pool of blood and flew it from the tower of the Cathedral as a symbol of distress to ships that had been sitting in Lough Foyle for a number of weeks, inactive, having made no attempt to break the boom stretched across the river. The flag also symbolised defiance to the 'enemy ranks' outside the Walls.

"The Apprentice Boys of Derry Club was formed by Mitchelburne in 1714, and it takes pride of place. Mitchelburne decided to form this Club to celebrate the actions of the 13 Apprentice Boys who shut the gates in 1688, and the other Clubs were formed after that."

One last thing Billy draws my attention to is 'the Browning Window' on the far side of the room: "This tells the story of Browning and the breaking of the boom, and was erected by the officers and members of the Browning Club.

Vandalised

"Sadly we had to be put flourescent lights behind it. Really stained glass windows need natural sunlight to bring them out, but that window goes out into Magazine Street so there had to be shutters on the outside to protect it otherwise it would be vandalised."

Just outside is a superb tapestry of Walker's Pillar, and another of the Cathedral along with a pictorial Roll of Honour of Killed Police officers.

In a side nook a huge 'Lundy' effigy hangs, together with a smaller version and a mini hand-crafted version. Every year Lundy the Traitor is burned (originally the effigy was strung from Walker's Pillar, now the burning is in Bishop Street Within). The large effigy will be burned on the first Saturday in December. Each of the Parent Clubs take it in turns to make the effigy, and it is overseen by Raymond Walker from The Fountain.

Raffled

Lundy is made in the Sping and housed here until his burning. The hand-knitted one is raffled off every year, while the middle-sized one goes to a Club in Belfast for burning by the Campsie Boys on December 18. In the same nook is the canon which gets fired on the Walls, fired four times symbolising '1' and '3' or 'The Brave 13' on the eve of each celebration.

Lining the hallway to the other Meeting Rooms are the Banners for each Parent Club and the General Committee, and the first we venture into is the Women's Meeting Room, laid out the same way, as is the Orange Order Meeting Room, unique in that it has a series of illuminated reliefs mounted on the wall which have religious meaning and are connected to the various 'degrees' of the Order, and adjacent to it is the 'Royal Black' Meeting Room, which has connections to the Old Testament and the 12 Tribes of Israel - you can really feel the history in this room, not least because of the 12 Banners representing the 12 Tribes of Israel.

Beside that is a small museum room filled with a bizarre range of collectibles, which is crammed with artefacts presented to the Trustees of the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall. Many of the items have no relation to the ABOD directly, but have historic significance becuse of band association, religious significance or connection in some way to Royalty, like the miniatore statue of Queen Victoria that exists in the main hall of the Guildhall, or all the 'Royal Family' tea service pieces.

Hinges

My favourite is the restored hinges from the original gates that were closed to King James and his Jacobite Army, but Billy choses to point out the Carson and Redmond memorabilia, remarkably similar simply because they were made by the same company!

The other thing I really loved about my tour of 'the Mem' was finally getting to climb the tower for a panoramic vista of my home town.

What a view...but there is one thing I'd really love to discover - how did a full gun carriage end up hidden in the corner at the top of the tower? There is no way that I can see that it could have been hauled up those steep stairs and round the corners. Can anyone enlighten me?