 After leaving St. Patrick's, Corkery taught art for the local technical education committee, before becoming inspector of Irish in 1925 and Professor of English at University College Cork in 1930.Among his students in UCC were Seán Ó Faoláin and Seán Ó Tuama.Corkery was often a controversial figure in academia for his 'nativist' views on Irish literature, views which resulted in conflict with many scholars of the Irish language, most notably Pádraig de Brún and de Brún's niece Máire Mhac an tSaoi.