Eamonn Kelly joined the Museum in 1975 and is the Keeper of the Irish Antiquities division. He is responsible for the Irish archaeological; Egyptian; Classical and Ethnographical Collections. His qualifications include a BA and MA, and prior to his appointment in the Museum he worked as a commercial archaeologist.

He is a member of the  Royal Irish Academy National Committee for Archaeology. His research interests include Iron Age studies; Viking Age rural settlement; and aspects of prehistoric and medieval art.

He has written extensively on diverse aspects of Irish archaeology and developed a new theory to explain the phenomena of Irish Iron Age bog bodies, which inspired the exhibition Kingship and Sacrifice.