National Museum of Ireland specializes in Irish art, culture and natural history.

The museum was founded August 14, 1877 a special act of the Irish parliament. On Kildare Street in Dublin it was built a special building, which was opened in 1890. The new museum were exhibited coins, medals, the most important archaeological finds, including a bowl of Arda and Tara Brooch and ethnographic and geological collections.

First, the museum called the Dublin Science and Art Museum, then - The National Museum of Science and Art, and since 1921 it is called the National Museum of Ireland. Like every museum nationwide, the National Museum and had a lack of exhibition space, and storage space for collections. In 1994 the museum was transferred to the barracks Collins - a complex of buildings XVIII-XIX centuries. The first part of the exhibition was opened there in September 1997. Another branch of the museum is located in Mayo.

Now the museum funds account for nearly 4 million items, of which almost two million refer to the section of archeology. Here are the golden era of the ancient Celts items, items made in the early Middle Ages, and finds from the Viking Age. Some of the findings gained worldwide fame and became a symbol of Celtic art. This, for example, bowls and Arda Derrinaflan - richly decorated silver vessels, Tara brooch - a masterpiece of the jeweler's art of the time, the golden treasure of the boat Broyter.

Ethnographic collection of the museum have been collected in the most distant parts of the world: Polynesia, South America, West Africa, etc. Collections section of applied art and history tell us about the culture of the country and its people over the past two millennia.

Natural History Museum (part of the National Museum of Ireland) is often called the "Museum in the museum" because Now we can see it is almost the same as it looked in 1856.