Matthew Kelly (21 September 1814 – 30 October 1858) was an Irish Roman Catholic priest, academic and antiquary.
Kelly was taught in very early years by Michael John Brenan, author of the Ecclesiastical History of Ireland.
When about seven years of age he entered the Kilkenny diocesan seminary, and in 1831 he began theological studies at Maynooth College, where he was elected a Dunboyne student in 1836.
He made large collections for a work on ‘The Ecclesiastical Annals of Ireland from the Invasion to the Reformation,’ as a continuation of the work of John Lanigan, and was superintending the publication of the ‘Collections on Irish Church History’ by Laurence Renehan.
He also translated Jean-Edmé-Auguste Gosselin's ‘Power of the Popes during the Middle Ages,’ London, 1853 (vol.