The museum mounted an exhibition called Applications of Art and Industry, which displayed locally commissioned enamel work, lace, and tapestries.

[6] From 1908, under the new directorship of Count George Noble Plunkett, there was an increased emphasis on collecting objects that were "distinctively Irish" across all the museum's divisions.

[8] It was from this point on that the art and industry division was tasked with collecting objects relating to Irish military and political history.

Bender, who was Jewish, donated the collection to the National Museum of Ireland during the tenure of curator and director Adolf Mahr, who was also the head of the Dublin Nazi chapter.

Bender eventually stopped sending further objects to the museum when the room, to which he had donated over 250 items, was reported to him as full by Mahr in 1937.

[13] In December 1988, the Irish government made the decision to close Collins Barracks as a military facility, and in 1993 an agreement was reached for the NMI to take possession of the site as a new museum campus.

[15][16] This was part of a wider plan to rejuvenate a neglected and deprived area of Dublin city spanning 270 acres between Collins Barracks and O'Connell Street.

[18] The museum was officially opened in its first phase in September 1997 by Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Síle de Valera.

These included a collaboration between the Office of Public Works and the Gilroy McMahon architectural firm to redevelop the western and southern ranges of the main Palatine Square into exhibition spaces for the museum, and for which they were awarded the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland silver medal for conservation in 2002.

The museum's conservation department is housed in a red brick extension to the original buildings of the Transport Square, and was completed in 2001.

A screen shot of curator Brenda Malone holding the slippers as she showed them to a group of students from Liverpool John Moores University was shared on Twitter by author and lecturer, Dr Gillian O'Brien.

[26] The museum contains displays of Irish coins and currency, silverware, furniture, Asian art, folk life and costumes, ceramics, and glassware.

The exhibition is organised chronologically, with the phases of military occupation and development in Ireland covered, as well as the role of Irish soldiers in armies around the world up to modern-day peace-keeping activities with the United Nations.

[37] The hat that Michael Collins was wearing when he was fatally shot was part of a previous exhibition entitled Road to Independence[38] in Kildare Street from 1991 to 2005.

A number of objects directly relating to the execution of the leaders of the Rising were exhibited, including the blood-stained shirt of James Connolly.

It was opened by Síle de Valera, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and her counterpart in Northern Ireland, Michael McGimpsey, and was the first exhibition of its kind in the museum for over 100 years.

[46] In 2000, the museum purchased a large collection of works from the designer and architect Eileen Gray at a cost of £900,000, outbidding the Pompidou Centre, Paris.

Artefacts exhibited include King William's gauntlets that he wore at the Battle of the Boyne, a pocket book belonging to Wolfe Tone while he was imprisoned in the Barracks, and an oar and life belt salvaged from the RMS Lusitania.

[59] Special temporary exhibitions are mounted regularly in the former Riding School, which is behind the western side of the Palatine Square, behind the reception area and museum shop.

It explores themes of institutional abuse, reflecting on the experiences of those who spent time in Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes, and the industrial school system in Ireland.

Malone started collecting political posters the morning after the vote, as well as putting a call out on social media for members of the public to donate items relating to the campaign, on both sides, to the museum[73] using the hashtags #Archivingthe8th and #Collectingthe8th alongside other cultural institutions in Ireland.

[75] As part of the collection relating to marriage equality government minister, Katherine Zappone, donated her wedding dress to the museum in 2018.

[72] In 2019, Rory O'Neill known by his drag performance name, Panti Bliss, donated the dress he wore on the night of his speech at the Abbey Theatre about homophobia in 2014 as part of their "Noble Call" series.