Career
He was a book and picture dealer before entering politics. Kelly was arrested after the 1916 Easter Rising and sent to prison in England, and after becoming seriously ill, he was released back to Dublin. He was elected as a Sinn Féin Member of Parliament for the Dublin Street Stephens"s Green constituency at the 1918 general election.
In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at the Mansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann.
He was re-elected unopposed at the 1921 elections for the Dublin South constituency. He supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty but was too ill to attend the Dáil vote.
He served as substitute Minister for Labour from 19 March 1919 to end of October 1919. He did not join Cumann na nGaedheal along with other pro-Treaty Sinn Féin TDs in 1923, nor did he contest the 1923 general election.
In 1930 he joined Fianna Fáil and was elected as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (Territorial Decoration) at the 1933 general election for Dublin South.
He remained a Territorial Decoration and councillor until his death in 1942.