Archbishop Walsh was the most publicly visible ecclesiastic in the Irish Church in the last quarter if the nineteenth century. In his many books and frequent letters to the newspapers he ranged over a wide area. Among other issues he wrote on politics, economics, monetary matters, education, social questions, language, music, canon law and theology. 

Walsh's most important achievements were his contributions to the consolidation of the modern Irish political system between 1885 and 1891: to land reform - the cumulative effect of the Irish Land Acts between 1885 and 1910 owed much both to his analytical mind and remarkable tenacity; and to education in its different levels but especially to his part in solving the University question. 

Walsh's other important contributions were in initiating and promoting the arbitration of labor disputes, in promoting the revival of Irish language and culture, the promotion of music (a life-long passion) and in the development of Irish Historical studies through his persistent promotion of research into the lives and background of the Irish Martyrs. These varied achievements taken in their entirety were quite astounding. But his essential greatness is to be found in his determined quest for equality, without which, he understood ther was no dignity, justice or real freedom for the Irish people.