Dónal is Keeper of the Art and Industrial Division of the National Museum of Ireland. He is responsible for the leadership, management and implementing the strategic direction of the Division at Collins Barracks. 

The Art and Industrial Division is a national collection of over 530,000 artefacts, encompassing Ireland’s artistic, social, industrial, military, political and social heritage, over the last four centuries. This includes decorative and applied arts; musical and scientific instruments; numismatics and philately; vehicles; arms and armour; manuscripts and artworks; the Eileen Gray collection; and Asian art and artefacts. Dónal led the development, curation and launch in 2025 of the new 'Changing Ireland' galleries at the National Museum of Ireland, the largest expansion of the Museum in over twenty years.

Dónal began his career in visual art practice before moving towards art history, research and collection curation. Until 2023, he was a Curator at the National Gallery of Ireland, where he managed the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art, one of the world’s leading centres for the preservation of, and access to, Irish art research collections. His own research interests are in modern and contemporary Irish art; art and ecology; the Irish diaspora; and collection management. He has published and lectured at a national and European level and is a contributor to 'Art and Architecture of Ireland' (2015); and 'Irish Art 1920-2020 : Perspectives on Change' (2022), both published by the Royal Irish Academy.

Dónal curated numerous exhibitions at the National Gallery of Ireland including Sarah Purser: Private Worlds (2023); James Coleman: Still Life 2023); Jack B. Yeats: Painting & Memory (2021); Shaping Ireland: Landscapes in Irish Art (2020); Markievicz: Portraits and Propaganda (2018); Aftermath, The War Landscapes of William Orpen (2017); Jack B. Yeats, The Sketchbooks (2013). Dónal has a strong interest in the role of research in art practice and has commissioned new artworks by artists including Memento Civitatem by Alice Maher and Jamie Murphy (2022); I Have no Right to be so Near by Garrett Phelan (2017); Floats in the Aether by Amanda Coogan (2018); Pathos of Distance by Sarah Pierce (2016); Moving Thresholds by Rhona Byrne (2014).

Dónal is the chair of the board of Project Arts Centre, Dublin. He served on the Board of Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre from 2014-2020.