Murphy’s later years were mainly spent in combating partition and conscription. The redoubtable lord mayor of Dublin (1917–24) Laurence O’Neill, a supporter of Larkin, described Murphy as the outstanding personality of the National Convention of 1917. He knew what was at stake and bent all his ability to bring unionists and nationalists together in a united Ireland.
Murphy died on 26 June 1919, aged 74. Dublin City Council, on 27 June 1919, expressed its deepest sympathy at the passing of one ‘whom we always regarded as one of our ablest and best citizens, and whose loss—commercially, intellectually, and personal—will long be felt by the community and by our country generally’. The editorial in the main rival newspaper, the Freeman’s Journal, on Friday 27 June commented:
‘He was the leading figure and the organiser of the employers’ victory in the strike of 1913. Perhaps, his peace was too much of the victor’s peace, and a less sweeping victory might have had more satisfactory results in the years that have followed. But it is due to him to acknowledge that it was not so much the pecuniary profits of the success that interested him as his desire to safeguard those powers of independent management which he regarded as indispensable for the prosperity of Irish industry.’