Blair Mayne: Priceless archive of SAS soldier may never be open to public

An archive containing the belongings of Special Air Service (SAS) founder Blair "Paddy" Mayne is unable to open to the public. The War Years Remembered collection is a not-for-profit charity but has been unable to gain accreditation as a museum. The curator of the collection, David McCallion, said the situation was a "complete nightmare". The Department for Communities (DfC) said that only accredited museums were eligible to apply for funding to any of its open grant schemes. "Departmental officials and NI Museums Council staff met War Years Remembered in August 2025 and provided a range of advice regarding a possible route to accreditation," a spokesperson said. But McCallion told BBC News NI the building the collections were in, a warehouse in Newtownards, needed major renovation. McCallion said he was facing a "chicken and egg" situation with the DfC and the Northern Ireland Museums Council (NIMC). "They point blankly said that they couldn't give us any money because we weren't an accredited museum," he said. "That's chicken and egg as far as the volunteers and everybody else is concerned. "All we want to do is get back into the public domain, and make the collection accessible