Walsh was born into a family of partially Irish descent in east Manchester, the oldest of four children.
[1] After retraining in 1991, he worked as a housing officer for Manchester City Council, and then for three years as manager of a community regeneration project in Salford.
He has led workshops in a wide variety of educational institutions, including schools, colleges, universities, prisons and care units.
[7][8] It was discussed alongside poems written about earlier atrocities committed in Manchester, including The Masque of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley, on BBC Radio 4's Front Row on 24 May 2017.
His brother, Rev’d Mike Walsh, is a Minister of the United Reformed Church serving in South Manchester.