Armistice Day: War museum facing closure due to rent cost

The museum curator David McCallion says the cost of rent has doubled in the past year

A charity has said tens of thousands of original wartime artefacts could be packed away for good if it cannot find new premises.

The War Years Remembered exhibition in Ballyclare, County Antrim, is facing closure due to rising costs.

Its curator David McCallion said rent at its current site has doubled in the past year.

"We can't afford it as a charity so we've lost the premises and need to get out as soon as possible," he said.

"Time is running out, we need somewhere immediately.

David McCallion says the collection of thousands of items from the world wars "belongs to the people"

"We've been up and down this country looking for a home and sadly everything is overpriced.

"We are hoping we can reach somebody who can give us tangible help - we need a building and a building we can afford to stay in."

The collection started when Mr McCallion was eight years old, when his grandfather passed on a belt and chocolate tin from his service during World War One.

It has since developed into one of the most important exhibitions of military history in Ireland.

"As Granda always said there was no orange and green in the trenches, there was only red blood," he said.

The collection at the museum contains tens of thousands of items from both World Wars

The collection now contains tens thousands of items from both world wars, personal equipment reflecting life and death at home and on the frontline, as well as artefacts from the 1916 Easter Rising.

"There's tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of items which people have entrusted to us so it needs to go into the right environment for conservation, preservation and also for security," said Mr McCallion.

Since it opened to the public, visitors from schools, community groups and shared history projects have seen authentic wartime vehicles, uniforms, weapons, medals and letters.

"This is a shared history museum - it's about the personal accounts and why they went to war," said the curator.

The collection includes small items such as letters and medals as well as military uniforms and vehicles

"As we always say: don't blame the poor soldiers that went to war - blame the politicians and leaders that sent them."

In 2019 Mr McCallion received an award from then Prime Minister Theresa May for his work on the museum.

She praised him for "allowing thousands of people in Northern Ireland to engage with their military heritage".

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Mr McCallion hopes a new home for the collection can be found as soon as possible.

"This collection belongs to the people and it should stay in the public domain," he said.