The Mayor's Parlour

As with the rest of the Guildhall, the Parlour has its own stained glass, this time charting the City as it existed in 1688 and again in 1793.

According to Colin, one of the windows was presented by Sir John McFarland, Justice of the Peace, High Sheriff of the City in 1904, and himself a Mayor of the City. John McFarland was responsible for the construction of the Letterkenny, Burtonport and Carndonagh railways.

Colin tells me that there are more windows upstairs which show the progression of the City, but that the parlour windows also show the Coats of Arms of John McFarland and those of Matthew Anderson Ballantine, also a former Mayor and High Sheriff of the City with his family's Coat of Arms in 1793.

Windows

The third of the windows was presented by Sir F Henry Miller, former Town Clerk and City Solicitor in memory of his father, Sir William Miller, JP, former Mayor, and in memory of his grandfather, Joseph E Miller, JP and former Mayor.

I begin by asking the age and history of the Mayor's desk, and Colin obliges.

"The Guildhall was bombed in 1972. There were two bombs planted: One on the Monday and one on the Friday. The bottom floor of the Guildhall was, basically, devastated. All the original furniture, the Queen Anne furnishings suffered and were destroyed, so this is relatively new furniture here," he says, with a sweeping gesture of the hand towards the ornate desk.

"The desk was put in in the early 1980s, as was the chair and the additional chairs for guests and VIPs to sit on," he says guiding my attention back to the window, adding: "This table here in front of the stained glass, was given by Peter Campbell-Grove, who is connected to The Honourable The Irish Society.

Old barn

"This apparently was lying out in an old barn of his on his estate and a former Mayor of the City, Marlene Jefferson was visiting him and he gave her a tour. She noticed this fine piece of furniture and it was in an awful state, but she thought it was beautiful and she rescued it. He said he would present it to the City or Guildhall," says Colin, casually adding that since its restoration it is now worth in the region of 7,000.

The glass top was made in two sections to facilitate cleaning.

Sitting atop of that there are a series of plaques, certificates of recognition, sports trophies, a set of silverwear presented to Mrs Jefferson in 1980 to mark her election as the first Lady Mayor of the City, and poignantly a gavel presented from the Warrington Male Voice Choir, who visited on December 16, 1995. The gift marks the start of exchange visits between Warrington and Londonderry after the bombing there.

Royal Navy ships

Pointing to the plaques on display, Colin reveals that quite a number of them are from visiting Royal Navy ships, visitors from various councils

"There is only so much that you can display here, so a lot of the plaques have gone down to the Council Offices and hang on the walls. What you see displayed here in the cabinets and around the fireplace, would be the bulk of them, but other artifacts have been packed in boxes and sent down the office block because there is more room down there."

My eye is drawn to the impressive fireplace, where I notice in particular the mounted bronze head of Senator Bobby Kennedy, which is inscribed 'Senator Edward M Kennedy, January 9, 1998' which was presented by the late President's brother, who did a lecture in the Guildhall in connection with Magee College under the Tip O'Neill Chair Peace Lectures. The JFK 'head' was presented to the then Mayor.

Dominant feature

Another dominant feature of the Mayor's Parlour are the portraits of the past Mayors.

"We move these around. Because there is only one picture rail, we don't want to go 'up' the walls, so what we do is move them along each year. They are pictures on canvas and date back to the old Commission when the Corporation became the City Council in 1971, and they work from the right-hand-side. There is a four-year term in every council and because there are so many we take four down which are moved into the Council chamber, and the rest are moved round. There are one or two missing," he says.

The Mayors generally have their portraits taken before they finish up in office and every Mayor then gets 'hung' in the parlour! Originally they were all done by McCarter's Studios, but the format changed in the 1990s, and one Mayor actually had their portrait painted.

Fireplace

The last interesting, but very dominant feature is the fireplace. Years ago the Guildhall was heated by coal fires - even the main hall - but the grate on display in the Parlour originally was used for fires heating the minor hall upstairs.

"This was lying in pieces down in the cellar," Colin tells me, adding: "We rescued it, got the glass and the coal made for it and electrified it. There is no heat that comes off it, but there is a nice glow off it. The actual surround you see came from a large mansion in Comber in Co Down. This was a new innovation in the Mayor's Parlour, as there was no fireplace in the original Parlour prior to the bombing in 1972. So they had a choice of two fireplace surrounds and they chose this one. Behind it is the sandstone one made from the same sandstone in Dunfries in Scotland that the building is made from and the surround is fastened on to it. The whole thing marries together very well," he says stepping back with an admiring eye.

He's right, it is beautiful. The grate in the 'fire' is particularly handsome.

If you get the chance to survey the parlour I'll leave you to figure out where the secret compartment for the drinks cabinet is...