In 1919, he was to become the director of the music school in Cork and became the first professor of Irish music at University College Cork in 1922. Ill-suited for administrative tasks, he relinquished the post after one year and returned to Belfast, which after the Irish Civil War had become the capital of Northern Ireland. In 1932, he finally settled in Dublin, where he worked for An Gúm, the Irish government publisher, as arranger of Irish traditional songs for piano and choirs, many of which became teaching material at schools in the nascent Republic of Ireland. He also taught Irish and traditional music in the Dublin Municipal School of Music for two years. On many occasions he acted as adjudicator in singing and musical competitions across Ireland.