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Specialised museum in Dublin, Ireland

The Natural History Collection comprised sub collections for zoology, geology and botany; the geological collections have largely been held in storage from the 1960s, and the botanical collection was moved to National Botanic Gardens in 1970. However, the museum's zoological collection, and its building, have changed little since Victorian times, and it is sometimes described as a "museum of a museum" or a "stately home of death". Admission has been free of charge for decades, and attendance grew from 106,000 in 2007 to over 336,000 in 2017, and 388,000 in 2019, with the collections being moved over a period of around ten months, as detailed on an official museum Twitter channel.

The Natural History Collection comprises over 2 million items in the fields of zoology and geology, a million of the specimens being insects. There was previously also a botanical collection but this was transferred to the National Botanic Gardens in 1970. As with many other natural history museums, the majority of specimens are not on display, for example the entirety of the geological collections. In 1962, a building known as "the Annexe", which housed the main geological displays, was demolished to make way for the Dáil Éireann restaurant and office; this led to these collections being placed in storage in buildings in Beggars Bush and elsewhere, and most have remained in storage since then. Among the many scientists who have studied the collections, Stephen Jay Gould did an essay based on the Irish elk in the museum.

The museum building is a ‘cabinet style’ museum designed to showcase a wide ranging and comprehensive zoological collection, and has changed little in over a century. the exhibitions display 10,000 specimens from around the world. The Irish Room, the ground floor of the museum, displays Irish animals, notably several mounted skeletons of giant Irish deer. Numerous skulls of those and other deer line the walls. Stuffed and mounted mammals, birds, fish — and insects and other animals native to or found in Ireland — comprise the rest of the ground floor. Many of the specimens of currently extant animals, such as badgers, hares, and foxes, are over a century old. A basking shark hangs from this ceiling. This grouping of Irish fauna in one room dates from 1910, when the collections were arranged by geography rather than purely taxonomy. Many of the mounted specimens were purchased from or donated by the Royal Zoological Gardens, Dublin. Part of the large collection of Irish birds bequeathed by Richard Barrington is mounted along one wall. In 1792 the Society purchased the collection of Nathaniel Gottfried Leske under the instruction of Richard Kirwan. Leske's collection was one of Europe's largest natural history collections. From this core collection, the Professor of Mineralogy in the RDS, Karl Ludwig Giesecke, expanded the collection by travelling Ireland and internationally including Greenland. Electric lighting was introduced to museum buildings in 1882, but it was only in 1895 that it was deemed sufficiently satisfactory that it was possible to fully replace the gas lighting. During this time many of the staff members added to the collections; this included such as Valentine Ball, Richard J. Ussher, and Alfred Cort Haddon. Specimens were also purchased from suppliers such as Robert Damon, Edward Gerrard & Sons, Deyrolle, Václav Frič, Wilhelm Schlüter, Rowland Ward and Williams & Son, Dublin. From 1905 to 1911, Scharff and other members of staff took part in surveys with the RIA of islands off the coast of Ireland such as Lambay and Clare Islands. The staff were also involved in cave explorations, the materials from which were deposited in the museum.

On the morning of 5 July 2007, the 150 year old Portland stone staircase (not accessible by the general public) partially collapsed. Eleven people were injured, as a teacher training course was underway in the area. The stairway was a very ornate structure, arising from Leinster House's former status as the home of the Royal Dublin Society. Members of the society would have used what is now the back door of the museum building to gain access from Leinster House to this building, which is why it was built to impress. The building was subsequently the subject of a Health and Safety review, and following this, plans for improvements were made. The museum was fully closed for nearly three years, until Thursday 29 April 2010, when the ground and first floor were reopened. As of 2021, both of the gallery floors remain closed, due to lack of emergency exits at upper levels.

In the 2000s plans for an extension to one side of the existing building were considered, to provide more display space, and enable construction of lifts, costed at a total of 15 million euro.

The museum is included in the National Development Plan 2018 2027, as announced in 2018, with allocation for the construction of a side extension, designed not to interfere with the integrity of the historic building, including display space, as well as an education space, a café, a shop, lifts and other disabled access facilitation. There would also be extra emergency exits from the upper floors of the museum.

By 2020, the Office of Public Works was preparing to begin works to restore the roof, and it was hoped that this would be followed by the broader restoration works (now under Project Ireland 2040). In later 2020, work began on removing collections, including the two whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling, to facilitate renovation work on the museum roof and structure.

The National Museum of Ireland has a unified organisation structure and budget, with a single overall Director, a Keeper for each major collection, including Natural History, and to some extent also location, and shared registration, education, IT and administrative functions. Also shared is the facilities function, which provides the attendants for the galleries. Staffing has been severely restricted for many years, and at the Natural History Museum these limitations led the period during which there was only one professional zoology staff member, and in the 2000s to there being no educational operation for at least two years, and to the closure of the museum shop for some years; the small shop resumed operations, selling books and other science related items, at the end of March 2018.

Including the Keeper, there is a professional staff of just 3–5 in recent years, much smaller than in many comparable institutions, handling management, curation, classification, international cooperation and scientific advice. In particular, the museum forms part of the global scientific community handling taxonomic queries and exchanging materials and reference data. One of a series of books written by school students, In Pieces, also uses the museum as a setting as does the children's novel Molly Malone & Bram Stoker in Double Trouble at the Dead Zoo. The museum has been used as a filming location, particularly for Victorian period dramas. These include an episode of Ripper Street, from season 2, in 2013. In 2015 Penny Dreadful filmed in the museum for season 3, with the museum standing in for the Natural History Museum, London.

In 2018, the museum also became a wedding venue; the first wedding, between former staff member Rebecca O'Neill and her fiancé Greg Sheaf, took place that year.