For the next five years he worked with the Primary Catechetical Commission preparing the Children of God series, the primary catechetical program.[citation needed]
Murphy taught theology in the Institute for Religious Education, Mount Oliver, Dundalk, for a year before returning to Kerry in 1979 as diocesan director of religious education in post-primary schools and co-ordinator of adult religious education in the diocese.[citation needed]
He was the first director of the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, Killarney, becoming Curate of Killarney Parish in 1987 and administrator in 1988. Upon the death of Bishop Diarmaid O’Súilleabháin in August 1994 he was appointed administrator of the diocese of Kerry, and was elevated to bishop in 1995.[2]