FOI 42-22: Scripts for tours of Parliament Buildings

Information Standards Freedom of Information Response

Our Ref: FOI 42-22

8 September 2022

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”)

I am writing to confirm that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission (Assembly Commission) has processed your request dated 1 September 2022 in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In your request, you asked:

“Under the Freedom of Information Act, please provide:

The script given to tour guides/those providing tours around the Parliament Buildings at Stormont.”

The Assembly Commission holds information in relation to your request and this can be found in Appendix A below.

You have the right to request a formal review by the Assembly Commission and if you wish to do so, please write to me at the above address. If after such an internal review you are still unhappy with the response, you may appeal to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF which will undertake an independent review.

The Assembly Commission may publish details of your FOI request and its official response within the organisational disclosure log. The request will be completely anonymised and you will not be identified in any way. This is to meet the requirements as laid out by in the agreed publication scheme with the Information Commissioners’ Office.

Yours sincerely

INFORMATION STANDARDS

Appendix A

PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS: CENTRAL REFERENCE DOCUMENT FOR TOUR SCRIPTS (25 MARCH 2022)

Introduction

This document is not intended as a set script for the delivery of tours in Parliament Buildings. Each tour guide will have her or his own style, delivery and content. This document provides background information that can be verified through evidence. Where there is conflicting information, this will be indicated in the text.

The document follows a logical sequence of a tour based on the current (February 2020) line of route tour and also some additional areas to which the public can be brought, should the current tour be expanded. This script is confined to the limits of Parliament Buildings, although information is also be provided on points of interest in the wider Estate. The script does not determine a tour sequence.

The tour information is organised as follows:

1. Historical background
2. Stormont Estate and Carson statue
3. Design and construction
4. Exterior of the building and Lord Craigavon’s tomb
5. Great Hall and Craigavon statue
6. Senate Chamber and Conor and Murphy paintings
7. Assembly Chamber
8. Committee room
9. Paintings of former Speakers and First and deputy First Ministers
10. Assembly Library
11. Long Gallery
12. Members’ Dining Room

The information in this document is primarily derived from the sources given in the Appendix. Where additional sources are used, these will be indicated in the text. Where the sources conflict, this will also be indicated.

Historical Background

The first Parliament of Northern Ireland was formed in 1921, following the partition of Ireland, provided for by the Government of Ireland Act 1920. That Parliament consisted of:

• The Senate of Northern Ireland and
• The House of Commons of Northern Ireland

The Senate comprised 24 senators elected by the Commons and 2 senators by virtue of their office: the Lord Mayor of Belfast and the Mayor of Londonderry.

The Commons comprised 52 members elected by single transferable vote:

• 16 from borough constituencies
• 32 from council constituencies
• 4 from the Queen’s University constituency

The State Opening of Parliament by King George V took place on 11 June 1921 in the Council Chamber in Belfast City Hall, although the first sitting was on 7^th June.

Subsequent meetings took place in the Presbyterian Assembly’s College (now Union College) starting in September 1921. This was to be the Parliament’s home for 11 years and the rent was £8,000 per annum.

Options for the permanent location of a Northern Ireland Parliament were discussed at various levels, with possibilities including Belvoir Park, the Belfast Castle Estate and Orangefield. The Belvoir Estate was the favoured location, as the 600 acres there could accommodate Government, Parliament and Courts of Justice. However, the Stormont Estate was cheaper than the £50,000 price of Belvoir, although the Courts of Justice would have to be built elsewhere.

Approval for the purchase of Stormont was debated on 22 September 1921 and a debate on cost on 23 September. Approval of works and an extension of the transport system to serve the Parliament were passed on 4 October 1921.

The Castle and Estate were purchased for £20,000 (plus £141.12s.0d for the Castle’s fixtures and fittings). Prime Minister Sir James Craig advanced the deposit of £3,000 from his own funds to secure the sale.

The source of a figure of £20,334 cannot be located.

There is a story that the Government of Ireland Act 1920 states that the Government of Northern Ireland should sit in Belfast. The Estate was not in Belfast, but the city boundary was extended to include the Estate so Parliament Buildings could be located here.

The 1920 Act states the Government should sit in Belfast unless the Parliament decides otherwise. Historical maps show the Estate to be in Castlereagh before and after construction.

The Northern Ireland Cabinet first met at nearby Cabin Hill, then moved to Stormont Castle following its refurbishment.

Stormont Estate

At the time of purchase, the Stormont Estate comprised Stormont Castle, 100 acres of woodland and 135 acres of parkland. There are signs of occupation since early times. Two enclosures, probably from the first millennium, were in the vicinity of where Parliament Buildings now stands. One is now covered by the visitors’ car park and the other was disturbed during the construction of the building, remnants still discernible just north of Lord Craigavon’s tomb.

The Castle was originally a large house constructed by Rev John Cleland, Rector of Newtownards, in 1830 and given the name of Storm Mount. Cleland’s gains were said to be ill-gotten and he died in 1834. His son Samuel inherited the Estate, but he was killed in an accident in 1842. The building was castellated by Samuel’s widow in 1858 and extended with stables, outbuildings and a conservatory, acquiring the name of Stormont Castle.

The family moved abroad in 1893 and the Estate was leased to tenants until being put up for sale by the family in 1920 and being purchased by the Northern Ireland Government. Stormont Castle was originally to be demolished, that being one of the potential sites for the Parliament, but the more difficult but imposing present site was chosen instead, giving Stormont Castle a reprieve (preparation of the lower site, preferred by the Treasury, was estimated to cost £50,000; that of the upper site, preferred by the Northern Ireland Government, £200,000).

The Castle was initially used as the Prime Minister’s residence, but today houses the offices of the Northern Ireland Executive. Alterations to the Castle to suit the Prime Minister (and, more importantly, his wife) cost £19,940 and additional furniture was added to the value of £7,100.

The Estate had to be extensively redesigned in order to accommodate the Parliament. In particular, a large ramp or processional way was built from the Newtownards Road to the Parliament, replacing the original access road to Stormont Castle, which crossed the Estate from west to east. Prince of Wales Avenue was named after Edward, the Prince of Wales, who opened Parliament Buildings in 1932. It is known locally as ‘The Mile’, but it is not quite a mile long. It is closer to three quarters of a mile to the front door.

It has been said that it is a mile to the centre of the building, or that it is 0.9 miles to the back of the building. Measurement by mapping software gives 0.75 miles as the crow flies. Calculation of the slope (by Pythagoras) doesn't alter that much.

The landscaping of the Estate was designed by William Bean, former curator of Kew Gardens. Prince of Wales Avenue is lined by 305 lime trees. These taper towards the gate, to give the impression on entry of the woodland parting before the visitor, emphasising the size and grandeur of the Parliament at the top of the hill. The lanterns that illuminate the avenue were a gift from Newfoundland and Labrador and sport caribou (or moose) heads.

There is some confusion over this. Caribou (North American reindeer) are a symbol of Newfoundland and Labrador, but the heads on the lanterns resemble moose (North American elk). There is a story that the coat of arms of Newfoundland and Labrador was designed in 1638 by someone who had never seen a caribou and so drew a moose instead.

The Newfoundland Regiment served at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, in 29th Division, which was adjacent to 36th (Ulster Division) in the initial assault on 1st July. It is thought that the gift of the lanterns at the front of the building is a recognition of this.

The Speaker’s House, designed by Ralph Knott, was completed in 1926. This was of a neo-Georgian design and was constructed in red brick. Extended in 1975, the building is now called Stormont House and accommodates the Northern Ireland Office.

The two gate lodges and accompanying gates at the Newtownards Road and Massey Avenue were designed by Arnold Thornely, who designed Parliament Buildings, and were completed in 1932, at the same time as Parliament Buildings itself. The lodges and gate pillars are of Portland stone and the gates and railings of cast iron. Decorations are of neo-Classical Greek design. The bank building at the Massey Avenue gate was also to a Thornely design and of Portland stone.

The statue of the Unionist Leader Edward Carson located on the roundabout in front of Parliament Buildings was the work of LS Merrifield. Carson was born in Dublin in 1854 and was a well-known lawyer and politician, famously defending the Marquess of Queensberry in a libel action brought by Oscar Wilde. Carson led the anti-Home Rule movement in the late 19^th and early 20^th Century. When partition was set for 1921, he resigned as Unionist leader and moved to England. He returned to Belfast four times: to receive an honorary degree in 1926, for the opening of Parliament Buildings in 1932, for the unveiling of his statue in 1933 and in a coffin following his death in 1935, to be interred in the only tomb in St Anne’s Cathedral. The 12ft bronze statue stands on a 13ft Irish granite plinth, decorated with bronze plaques of episodes in his life, including the signing of the Ulster Covenant, of which he was the first signatory.

Killeen Lodge guarded the original Estate entrance prior to the alterations for the Parliament. Stormont Villas (now Stormont Cottages) were constructed adjacent to Killeen Lodge and when complete, the lodge was demolished, being replaced by the current lavatory block. Stormont Villas were designed by architects attached to the Ministry of Finance, possibly Ernest Woods of Bangor, and are of painted rough-cast rendered walling with painted brick below. They were occupied by Estate superintendents and other civil servants and more recently provided overnight accommodation for Speakers of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Two neo-classical pavilions, also completed in 1936, are located at the Massey Avenue gate and adjacent to the gate to Stormont House, both attributed to Arnold Thornely.

Wartime heritage on the Estate consists of the original anchor points for barrage balloons that protected Parliament Buildings (the anchor points are located in front of the lavatory block halfway down Prince of Wales Avenue), and an air raid shelter located in woods north of the present-day visitors’ car park at Parliament Buildings. There is a bomb crater from the Second World War located in the corner of the Estate, accessed by a path to the left of the Newtownards Road gate on entering the park. The closest the Luftwaffe came to damaging Parliament Buildings was on 5 May 1941, when a bomb landed between the Parliament and the Carson statue but did not explode. A bunker adjacent to the car park for the playground is a command and control facility from the Cold War, constructed during the 1950s.

There are two statues on the Estate: The Gleaner by John Knox, which was exhibited at the Ulster Academy of Arts from 1949 to 1955, when it was moved to Stormont; and Reconciliation by Josefina de Vasconcellos, unveiled in 2000, which has related sculptures at other sites of conflict (Berlin, Hiroshima and Coventry). There is a monument to the 36^th Ulster Division on the Estate to mark the participation of that division at the Somme in 1916.

The current Estate comprises 407 acres, around half of which is public parkland. The playground, accessed by a separate gate from the Newtownards Road, is named after the late Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo (Marjorie) Mowlam.

Stormont Park has been used for a range of events and concerts over the years, including by Elton John, Luciano Pavarotti, Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance, the Eagles, Rod Stewart and the band Police. The funeral of the footballer George Best also took place in Parliament Buildings and 25,000 people lined the route through Stormont Park to pay their respects.

Design and Construction

The UK Treasury was paying for the building, so chose the architects. These were Ralph Knott and Arnold Thornely. Knott was a London architect responsible for the construction of London County Hall, later the Greater London Council Building. Thornely was from Liverpool and had designed a number of buildings in the city, including the Port of Liverpool Building, which he based on the design of Belfast City Hall.

The original design was for three buildings on the site: the Parliament and two administration buildings, joined to the Parliament by walkways. Thornely was to design the Parliament and Knott the additional buildings.

One version has the Parliament, Executive Building and Courts of Justice, to have the legislature, executive and judiciary on the same site. The site plan of 1924 describes the two other buildings as 'public offices'. This may refer to the original plan for the Courts of Justice to be located in the Belvoir Estate.

Preliminary plans were drawn up in 1922, with revised plans in 1924. The Parliament in the original design was to have four floors and a large cupola above a central hall.

It has been said that the exterior was to resemble the US Capitol Building in Washington DC. No evidence has been found for this, and the original design only has a passing resemblance.

Preparation of the site began in 1924, but the foundations for the building were only ready in 1926. Rising costs meant a revision of the plans: Knott’s additional buildings were cancelled, the cupola was removed and two additional floors were added to the Parliament to accommodate those who would have occupied the cancelled buildings. The name ‘Parliament Buildings’ in the plural was retained, even though there was only one building on the site.

The foundation stone was laid on 19 May 1928 by the Governor of Northern Ireland, Lord Abercorn. Within the stone was placed a casket containing a copy of the London Times, a collection of Belfast newspapers, a copy of the Northern Ireland Parliament Official Report (Hansard) and a coin collection.

The foundations of the building are of granite from the Mourne Mountains in County Down (Slieve Donard granite). The stonework is of Portland Stone from the southern coast of England. Local (Scrabo and Ballycullen) and Scottish stone were considered, but Thornely insisted on white limestone. The interior is of Italian marble: the Great Hall having Travertine marble and the Senate Chamber the finer Botticino marble, quarried from the banks of Lake Garda. Some walls are lined with the artificial manu-marble, which is no longer in production in the UK. Ceilings and other walls are of enriched plaster.

Problems were noted in the plasterwork before the building was opened, with some ceiling collapse in the 1930s. This resulted in legal action that continued until 1944.

The building was completed in 1932, being occupied in April and formally opened by Edward, the Prince of Wales, on behalf of his father, George V, in November.

Knott died in 1929, allegedly due to drink. He had designed the Speaker’s House, now named Stormont House, which was built adjacent to Stormont Castle. Thornely was knighted in 1932.

The overall cost of construction of Parliament Buildings was £1,125,000.

There are various figures for cost, including £1.2m and £1.7m. The original estimate for the main building was £1.7m, Estate development £10,190 and the processional road £57,000. Revised plans in 1925 specified a cost of £1,125,000.

The construction of the building was undertaken by Stewart and Partners with Sir Douglas Fox and Partners consulting structural engineers. Furniture was designed by F J Rutherford MBE.

The Exterior

Thornley’s design of the building reflects the neo-Classical renaissance of the early 20^th Century and displays Palladian symmetry. Oriented south, the building is 369ft long, 167ft wide and 70ft tall, rising to 100ft to the top of the attic.

Most sources state the building is 365ft long – a foot for every day of the year. The report by the builders, Stewart and Partners, states 369ft, so should be taken as authoritative. There are other alternative measurements, such as 164ft wide and 92ft high.

It has also been said there are 365 windows. No official sources have been located stating this.

It has been said that the six floors were for the six counties of Northern Ireland. As the original design was for four floors, this must also be treated as spurious. There are, however, 60 steps to the front door, six columns at the main entrance and six windows in the Senate Chamber, which may or may not be of significance.

The distinctly Greek architectural influences can be seen on the exterior and in the interior of the building. The portico at the main entrance is of Greek temple design, with six Ionic columns supporting a pediment containing a frieze depicting either the flame of liberty being presented to Northern Ireland by the British Empire or the flame of loyalty being presented by Northern Ireland to the British Empire.

The most likely is the former. There is an established flame of liberty motif in art (primarily from the French revolutionary flame of liberty, popularised on the Statue of Liberty), but not of loyalty. The building was also a gift from the UK to the people of Northern Ireland and, bearing in mind the politics of the day, freedom of religion was one of the main political arguments of the Unionist position.

The pediment carving was by Malcolm Miller and Rendal Bond of Earp, Hobbes and Miller of Manchester.

A statue of Britannia flanked by two lions stands atop a raised attic.

There was once a suggestion this might be Boudicca. There is no recorded connection between Boudicca and this island.

Greek architectural motifs adorn the exterior of the building: wreaths, stylised rosettes, dentil and wave patterns, anthemion, palmette and lotus flowers.

It was once suggested that the anthemion is a representation of the horns of the Irish Elk. The anthemion of the pattern on the building is very common in Classical Greek architecture.

The raised attic is adorned with the bucrania, which in Greek architecture is a representation of an ox’s head, but in this case, it is a representation of the Irish Elk. This is the only specifically Irish feature of the architectural design of the building.

To the east of the building is the Portland Stone tomb of Sir James Craig, Viscount Craigavon. He was the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 until his death in 1940. Viscountess Craigavon died in 1960 and was also interred in the tomb. They are the only people officially buried on the Estate.

The tomb has the inscription:

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

JAMES

VISCOUNT CRAIGAVON OF STORMONT

FIRST PRIME MINISTER OF NORTHERN IRELAND

1921-1940

DIED NOV 24 1940

AND HIS WIFE

CECIL VISCOUNTESS CRAIGAVON

The Craigavon coat of arms adorns the front of the tomb and comprises a shield with three triple-arched bridges, an ermine band and a red hand of Ulster plaque upon which is a coronet and a rampant lion. The supporters are figures of the Royal Irish Rifles and the Ulster Special Constabulary, both organisations in which he served, indeed, he was buried with his two .303 rifles. The motto is “CHARITY PROVOKES CHARITY”.

Great Hall

The Great Hall, measuring 100ft x 48ft, is the public part of the building. Named the Central Hall until 1998, the layout is the same as that of the Westminster Parliament, with the Senate Chamber on one side (the equivalent of the House of Lords) and the Commons on the opposite side (the equivalent of the House of Commons). The Travertine marble walls and painted ceiling are decorated with classical Greek motifs, including mouldings of bead and reel, egg and dart and Lesbian leaf, Greek fretwork, anthemion, acanthus and lotus, and Irish Elk bucrania.

The interior decoration of Parliament Buildings was undertaken by G Morrow and Son of Clifton Street, Belfast and was modelled on the Palace of Westminster.

The symmetry of the building is demonstrated in the Hall, as the carvings on one side are mirrored on the other and the geometric patterns in the marble floor are reflected in the painted ceiling. Heaton Tabb and Company of London, who had painted some of the ships built by Harland and Wolff,  were contracted to carry out the paintwork in the building and they subjected the paint on the ceiling to a waxing process so that dust would not adhere to it. The protection this gave the paintwork was such that the ceiling did not require the same extent of restoration as the rest of the Hall, which was smoke damaged by a major fire in the building in January 1995.

The central chandelier is German in origin and was made around 1828. It is made of cast iron and gilded with 24 carat gold, with solid 24 carat gold decorative eagles, and weighs a third of a ton.

One source says the chandelier is of bronze. Another says it weights one and a half tons.
The eagles have been described as German Imperial eagles. German heraldry does not contain eagles of this style and decorative eagles of this kind can be found on many 19th Century items. A letter from the Royal Collection Trust of 1995 states there is nothing particularly German about them. However, there is some resemblance to a Prussian eagle military emblem of the mid to late 19th Century.

The chandelier, with a twin, was hanging in the state apartments of Windsor Castle from the middle of the 19^th Century. It was given on long-term loan to the Parliament in 1932.

The replicas on either side were of wood, plaster and gold paint. These did not survive restoration after the fire in 1995 and the aluminium replicas hanging in the Hall today were made instead.

It is said the replicas were made in Harland and Wolff shipyards. In fact they were made in London.

The books say it was a gift of Kaiser Wilhelm to Edward VII. The evidence is that the chandelier was in Windsor Castle before the post of Kaiser was established in 1871 and before Edward was king (in 1901).

Two identical chandeliers were hanging in the King's Drawing Room, also known as the Ruebens Room, in the 1860s. Different chandeliers were there in the 1820s, with a different ceiling. A picture showing the new ceiling but no chandeliers exists from the 1850s, so this seems the likely date of the chandeliers' arrival.

Another story says the chandelier was taken down in Windsor Castle during the First World War because it looked too German. If this were the case, it was back up in the 1920s, as there is a photograph of it in place from this time.

The conditions of the long-term loan have not been verified, i.e. it is to hang in a public place; it is maintained; and we tell visitors it is on loan from the Royal Collection.

The grand staircase is of marble with bronze balustrades. The statue on the staircase is of Lord Craigavon, first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1940. Made of bronze, on a plinth of Mourne granite and weighing two tons, the statue is life size. Craigavon stood 6ft 7in in life. The artist was again LS Merrifield, who had been responsible for the statue of Edward Carson in front of the building. The statue was sculpted in 1938 and unveiled in 1945.

A memorial was set into the wall at the entrance to the building to commemorate the 27 members of the Northern Ireland Civil Service who fell in the Second World War.

Senate Chamber

En route to the Senate Chamber is the rotunda. This contains portraits of Seamus Heaney and C S Lewis by the artist Ross Wilson. In a cabinet, there are gifts from visiting dignitaries to the Speaker of the Assembly on display. The robes in the rotunda were worn by the Speaker of the Commons.

Plaques are set into the walls in memory of Senators Paddy Wilson and Jack Barnhill, who were killed in the conflict in Northern Ireland. Wilson was a Catholic member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party who was killed in 1973 alongside his Protestant friend Irene Andrews by John White, who later became a leading member of the Ulster Democratic Party following his release from prison. Barnhill was a member of the Ulster Unionist Party shot dead by members of the Official Irish Republican Army in 1971.

The Senate Chamber is set out in the form of the House of Lords at Westminster, including the red Morocco leather upholstery and velvet curtains, as in the House of Lords. It is set out in the Westminster adversarial style, Government senators to the right of the Speaker and Opposition senators to the left. The benches are of Australian walnut, the central table English walnut, the Speaker’s chair South African walnut and the ebonised mahogany columns on either side are from Nigeria. The window surrounds are of painted mahogany and the glazing on the ceiling is intended to simulate natural light and is from Canada.

It is said these items were gifts, but this is not corroborated in the sources consulted.

The red despatch boxes in the Chamber were a gift of the House of Lords.

The seats in the four corners of the chamber, accessed from doors behind the red curtains, were for officials of the government and the legislature. The seats are partitioned from the floor of the chamber itself, which can only be accessed by the senators themselves. The exception is the seat by the door, which was occupied by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod or Black Rod for short. His job, on the Speaker’s command, was to remove any misbehaving senators from the chamber.

It has been said that any senators so removed are escorted to the gate of the Estate and were not permitted to return for 24 hours. This has not been corroborated.

He also had a ceremonial role in the opening of the Senate.

The press gallery is above and behind the Speaker and the strangers’ gallery in front of the speaker. ‘Stranger’ is the term used for anyone not belonging to the Parliament, i.e. not elected members or staff. This would be referred to as the public gallery today.

Above the strangers’ gallery are three arabesques that represent the three main industries of Northern Ireland at the time the building was being opened: agriculture, shipbuilding and the linen industry. Locally made Irish linen damask is set into the Bottocino marble around the walls of the chamber. The linen is worn on either side of the door because the senators believed it would bring them good luck if they rubbed the linen. The wall panels have perforated celotex for acoustic correction. Before the installation of the linen, samples were tested to ascertain any negative acoustic affects.

The senators occupied this chamber from 1932 to 1972, when the Parliament was prorogued, and dissolved in the following year. There has not been an upper house since 1972. The chamber is currently used as a committee room. The only modifications to the chamber are for this purpose: the extension of the table to facilitate Members sitting around the table and the addition of cameras to film proceedings (and associated recording equipment). The chamber has also been used for some special events and was used to accommodate the public hearings for the inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.

The senators vacated the chamber for a time, moving to the Conference Room, which is adjacent the Members’ Dining Room above the main entrance. During the Second World War, Belfast was subject to devastating bombing raids in April and May of 1941. Among the reasons that Belfast was vulnerable was that fighter cover for Northern Ireland was directed from northern England. To address this, No 82 Group Fighter Command was formed specifically to protect Northern Ireland. The senators offered the use of the Senate Chamber, which was modified for the purpose, with a large plotting map where the table is today. An inscription of thanks from the Royal Air Force was added to the Botticino marble on the press gallery balcony.

The building was camouflaged during the war with a combination of bitumen tar and cow manure. The theory behind the cow manure was that it would dilute the tar and make it easier to remove after the war. However, it took seven years to clean the building after the end of hostilities.

The Speaker’s chair bears two coats of arms: the Royal coat of arms above the Speaker and the coat of arms of Northern Ireland on the upholstery. This latter coat of arms still exists as an heraldic emblem but is no longer in use (in formal use 1921 to 1973). The two supporters are a lion and an extinct beast, megaloceras gigantius, popularly known as the Irish Elk. It was thought to be an elk because the first parts of the body found were the large antlers, the closest living thing with any similar antlers being the European elk. It has subsequently been found to be not related to the elk, but to the fallow deer. The earliest and most remains have been found preserved in the bogs of Ireland, but examples have been found all over Europe and as far afield as China. Still, it remains a symbol associated with Ireland in this building. A full skeleton can be seen at the Ulster Museum.

There are two paintings in the chamber. One is by William Conor depicting the state opening of Parliament by King George V in June 1921.

There are differing views on how many 'n's in the surname. Most biographies and his blue plaque have one.

This building did not exist at the time, so this is in Belfast City Hall. Conor was offered £200 to paint the picture, but he did not receive all of his money. The Members were paying for the picture and some did not pay up.

Different sources give different amounts that he received: £131, £131.6s

Reasons for withholding the money have been given, but have not been corroborated by sources consulted:

1. One is not supposed to paint the reigning monarch shorter than anyone else in a painting. The King is shorter than others in the picture.

2. The perspective of the painting is to focus on the King and Queen. This means some senators cannot be recognised, as only the backs of their heads could be seen.

3. Some of the ladies felt their faces were obscured by their hats (or senators felt their faces were obscured by ladies' hats).

The other painting is The House Will Divide by Noel Murphy. Unveiled in 2002, it depicts Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly that was established in 1998. Key figures to point out are:

• Speakers: Lord Alderdice; Eileen Bell; William Hay; Mitchel McLaughlin (Robin Newton was elected in 2003, so does not appear).
• First Ministers: David Trimble; Ian Paisley; Peter Robinson (Arlene Foster was elected in 2003, so does not appear).
• Deputy First Ministers: Seamus Mallon; Mark Durkan; Martin McGuinness.

Some Members sat live for Murphy and others were painted from well-known pictures, so the Members can be instantly recognisable.

There are various stories associated with this painting, not all of which have been corroborated, including:

• • Anyone who asked to be placed at the front of the painting was put at the back
  • Ian Paisley Junior has his hand position in a pose like the famous painting on the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel in the Vatican
  • Nigel Dodds' hand is painted in the position of a Papal blessing
  • David Ervine is painted as Rodin's The Thinker
  • Reg Empey is painted looking over his shoulder in Rococo style

Assembly Chamber

The rotunda before the Assembly Chamber contains a cabinet with gifts from visiting dignitaries to the Speaker of the Assembly and a commemorative stone to the Hillsborough Agreement of 2010. This agreement allowed for the devolution of policing and justice matters to the Northern Ireland Executive. There are also two plaques in memory of Sir Norman Stronge and Edgar Graham. Stronge was killed with his son by the Provisional IRA in 1981. He had been MP for Mid Armagh and was Speaker of the Commons from 1945 to 1969. Graham was a young lawyer and Ulster Unionist Party Assembly Member of the power-sharing legislature of the mid-1980s killed by the Provisional IRA in 1983.

The Commons Chamber was originally set out resembling the House of Commons at Westminster, with the exception that the seats were of Presbyterian blue instead of green, and the carpet was of flax flower blue, flax being the source of linen, a major economic driver in the region in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries. The chamber was set out in the Westminster adversarial style in the same way as the Senate Chamber, with walls of English burr walnut panelling, manu-marble and celotex.

There were 52 Members of the Commons, elected by Single Transferable Vote (STV). Four seats were reserved for graduates of Queen’s University — a common practice in early 20^th Century legislatures — but this was discontinued in 1969. After Parliament was prorogued in 1972, while there has not been an upper house, there have been lower houses.

The Constitutional Convention sat between 1974 and 1976. This had 78 elected Members and was intended to design a constitution for Northern Ireland. Rather than extend the adversarial style benches to accommodate the extra Members, a curve was placed at the end, described as the ‘European U’ style, considered more conducive to cooperation. However, the Convention was dissolved when it failed to agree on power-sharing arrangements, but a second power-sharing institution, also known as the ‘rolling devolution’ Assembly, was established in 1982. Also with 78 Members, no further modification was required to the chamber. This was dissolved in 1986.

In January 1995 a fire destroyed the chamber. While the rest of the building was smoke-damaged, everything in the chamber was burned. The cause of the fire was an electrical fault amongst the control systems under the Speaker’s chair.

A restoration process was to combine the decorative elements of the old chamber with a new layout. The walnut panelling around the walls was replaced and the Corinthian columns on each side of the chamber were reinstated. Hyndman Milliken undertook the gilding work on the column capitals and elsewhere in the chamber.

At the time of the fire, there was a planned upgrade of the building, to cost £5m. Following the fire required the restoration of the chamber and upgrade to the building was undertaken by KARL Construction and cost £24m.

Another figure given is 'over £22m'.

The public gallery was extended, with three places for wheelchair users, and additional seating galleries were placed over the voting lobbies.

There are translation booths at the back of the public gallery. During Assembly proceedings, Members may use a language of their choice, but the convention is that they must translate anything they say into English in their own speaking time.

The cameras around the chamber are streamed live to the Assembly website and to other websites, such as BBC Democracy Live. They are also streamed to the Assembly intranet system, so that anyone in the building with access to the internal IT system can watch.

The seats are laid out differently to the previous Commons Chamber: There is no central table and the Members are seated in a large arc, reflecting the notion of collaboration, rather than Government and Opposition.

Operation of the Assembly

The Northern Ireland Assembly was established by the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which provided for 108 Members elected by Single Transferable Vote (STV). This was reduced to 90 Members in the 2017 election, five elected in each of the 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland. The Assembly can legislate only for matters within its competence, that is, on areas that are devolved to Northern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Act. There are Transferred Matters that are devolved, Reserved matters, that are not devolved but can be at some point in the future, and Excepted Matters, which are the domain of the UK Parliament.

At the conclusion of an election, Members take their seats in order of size of party, the largest sitting to the right and closest to the Speaker, the second party to the left, and so on down the chamber. Ministers sit at the front, Chairs and Deputy Chairs on the second row and those without a specific office on the rear benches (i.e. ‘backbenchers’).

Voting in the Assembly is by division, that is, Members will rise and physically move through a voting lobby to indicate their choice, ‘ayes’ to the Speaker’s right and ‘noes’ to the left. Most votes are by simple majority, but being a power-sharing legislature, some votes have to be by cross-community consensus. This means that the two main political designations — Unionist and Nationalist — have to agree on certain decisions for them to pass. When Members first take their seats, they are required to designate as ‘Unionist’, Nationalist’ or ‘Other’. For a cross-community consensus vote to pass, it either requires a majority of both Unionists and Nationalists, or else a majority of the whole house plus 40% of both Unionists and Nationalists.

There are two mechanisms for decisions that require cross-community consensus:

1. Decisions requiring cross-community consensus according to the Northern Ireland Act, such as the appointment of the Speaker, the Assembly Commission, Ministers, etc.
2. 30 signatures in relation to any motion in the Assembly trigger a Petition of Concern, which requires cross-community consensus.

Members are known as “MLAs”, which stands for Member of the Legislative Assembly. The parliamentary week for an MLA when the Assembly is sitting is as follows:

Monday - Plenary (afternoon only)

Tuesday - Plenary and committee meetings

Wednesday - Committee meetings

Thursday - Committee meetings

Friday - Constituency office

As a power-sharing legislature in a region with a conflicted past, the Assembly has a symbol that had to be agreed by representatives of both main traditions and that would be regarded as non-contentious. This is a representation of the flax plant. Flax is used to make linen and linen was a very important industry in this region in the late 19^th and early 20^th Centuries. The symbol has six flowers for the six counties of Northern Ireland. This is not the first time this symbol has been used: the flax plant with six flowers represented Northern Ireland on the 1986 and 1991 editions of the £1 coin.

Committee Room

This has been included because some private tours have been taken to see how a Committee room is set out and how it works. The text is based on Room 29 or 30.

Assembly Committees undertake scrutiny of legislation, scrutiny of the work of Government Departments and inquiries on particular matters of concern. In brief, the usual passage of a Bill in the Assembly is as follows:

1. First Stage – the name of a bill is reads in the chamber and its intention is explained.
2. Second Stage – a bill is debated in the chamber.
3. Committee Stage – the relevant committee discusses the bill and makes recommendations.
4. Consideration Stage – amendments are debated in the chamber.
5. Further consideration Stage – the amended bill is debated in the chamber.
6. Final Stage – the Assembly decides whether to pass the bill.
7. Royal assent.

The convention is that a Committee is chaired by a Member of a party that is different to that of the Minister whose work it scrutinises, where this is possible. The Chair sits at one end, next to the Committee Clerk, whose is responsible for organising the Committee and ensuring procedures are adhered to. A Deputy Chair would also usually be from a different party to the Chair and the relevant Minister, where possible.

The Deputy Clerk also sits at this end of the table, responsible for taking notes and the administration of the meeting and the other chair is for a Bill Clerk, if a Bill is being considered, for an Official Reporter (Hansard) if required, or sometimes when another member of the secretariat, such as a researcher, is presenting to the Committee.

Members are sat on either side of the table and the other end of the table is for witnesses who are giving evidence to the Committee. There is a public gallery and meetings are recorded on camera in most, but not all, Committee rooms.

Portraits

Portraits on the first floor landing above the Great Hall are of former Speakers of the Assembly and First and deputy First Ministers.

They are:

Speakers

Lord Alderdice - Alliance MLA for East Belfast and Speaker of the Assembly in 1999-2003 by Carol Graham.

Eileen Bell - Alliance MLA for North Down and Speaker of the Assembly 2006-2007 by Conor Walton.

First Ministers

David Trimble - UUP MLA for Upper Bann and First Minister of Northern Ireland 1999-2002 by David Nolan.

Rev Dr Ian Paisley - DUP MLA for North Antrim First Minister of Northern Ireland 2007-2008 by David Nolan.

Deputy First Ministers

Seamus Mallon - SDLP MLA for Newry and Armagh and Deputy First Minister 1999-2001 by Rita Duffy.

Mark Durkan - SLDP MLA for Foyle and Deputy First Minister 2001-2002 by Conor Walton.

Martin McGuinness - Sinn Féin MLA for Foyle and deputy First Minister 2007-2017 by Tony Bell.

The Assembly Library

A library was created for the Northern Ireland Parliament just after its beginnings in 1921. The first librarian was Major George Thompson. When Parliament Buildings was first occupied in 1932, the library moved into rooms particularly designed for the purpose, so remains one of the few parts of the building in continuous use since it opened.

The current library contains books as a resource for Members, but electronic resources are now the main focus of information provision. The library also contains official reports and documents from the 1921-1972 Parliament and books that predate 1921, including a copy of Holinshed’s Chronicles from 1577.

Among the many roles the library has in the support of the business of the Assembly is the provision of information packs for Members to use for debates in the Assembly chamber.

There is a balance between explaining what the Assembly does and what could or should be in a tour. Descriptions of the work of all the business areas of the Assembly would not be appropriate for a tour, but the Library may be an exception as a physical space and for its historical background and artefacts.

The Long Gallery

The Long Gallery was constructed during the restoration of the 1990s from three rooms on the first floor to create a space for conferences and events. The Gallery was decorated in the same style as the rest of the building, with Botticino marble, Greek carving and bronze light fittings. The parquet floor was installed by French craftspeople from designs in the Palace of Versailles using timbers of a demolished French chateau.

The name of the chateau has not been identified.

Members’ Dining Room

The Members’ Dining Room is situated above the main entrance. The extension to the Dining Room (Room 115) was formerly the conference room, where the Senate sat while the Senate Chamber was being used by the Royal Air Force. The walls and floor of the Dining Room are of English Oak, the floor also being bordered with walnut. The balcony is inscribed with names of distinguished visitors.

APPENDIX 1: MAIN SOURCES

The Parliament of Northern Ireland, HMSO, 1971.

Parliament Buildings, Stormont, HMSO, 1985.

Parliament and Admiralty Building, HMSO, undated.

Estate and Forestry Services Ltd (1987), Stormont Estate and Woodland Management Report, 3 volumes, Belfast: DOENI.

Gallagher, J (2008), Stormont: The House on the Hill, Holywood: Booklink.

Kennedy, J and Wheeler, G (1998), Parliament Buildings, Stormont: The building, its setting, uses and restoration 1922-1998, Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society.

Northern Ireland Government Information Service (1965), Facts and Figures, No.38 November 1965.

Stewart and Partners (1932), Ulster Parliament Buildings, London: Stewart and Partners.

Foster, R (1989), Modern Ireland 1600-1972, London: Penguin.

Kiely, B (2004), Counties of Contention, Cork: Mercier.

Dudley-Edwards, R (2005), An Atlas of Irish History, Abingdon: Routledge.

Official Reports (Hansard) of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

Department for Communities Historic Building Database.

Cabinet Papers from the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland:

CAB/4/57 1922

CAB9H/5/1 1921-22

CAB3H/5/2 1923-26

CAB/4/1 1921

CAB/4/5 1921

CAB/4/7 1921

CAB/4/10 1921

CAB/4/12 1921

CAB/4/13 1921

CAB/4/14 1921

CAB/4/15 1921

CAB/4/30 1922

CAB/4/69 1923

CAB/4/144 1925

CAB/4/258 1930

CAB9H/1/1 1928-31

CAB9H/4/1 1921-24

CAB9H/5/14 1941

Department of Finance papers from the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland:

FIN14/2/2 1921

FIN14/2/3 1921

Miscellaneous government papers from the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland:

D/2048/5 1930

HA20/A/1/3 1921

MPS1/3/8 1941-44

CWP2/3 1930-38

CENT/1/12/39 1983-85