Following ordination Fr McNulty returned to St Bede's College as College Prefect, he remained in that post until 1921 when he was appointed Master of St Edmund's House, Cambridge. In 1930, Fr McNulty was recalled to the Salford Diocese to take up the post of Parish Priest at St Anne's Church, Ancoats, where he remained for two years.
On 13 May 1932, McNulty was appointed the sixth Bishop of Nottingham by Pope Pius XI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 11 June from Cardinal Francis Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, with Bishops Peter Amigo of Southwark and Thomas Henshaw of Salford serving as co-consecrators.[1]
McNulty died in office on 8 June 1943, aged 63 - three days before the eleventh anniversary of his consecration as bishop.[1]