He spent most of his ministry as a professor at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, and was appointed to the Chair of Dogmatic Theology in June 1936.
At the time he was seen as a daring, young, theologically engaged bishop and was invited to address many organisations and published several important lectures.
[3] In 1962 he wrote how economic growth, so vital to his poor Western diocese, would be stimulated by Ireland joining the EEC.
[6][7] When the dispute became public, Sinn Féin, characterised Philbin as being "completely in line" with the anti-republican War-of-Independence hierarchy, while praising Wilson for speaking out on "armed struggle, divorce, the papacy and education".
[9] Fr Pat Buckley suggested that if the bishop had "led two hundred thousand people up the Falls Road demanding civil rights, the Provos might not have been necessary".