However, being no orator, by mature inclined towards working behind the scenes, best known to the public for a book on the penal laws that was made obsolete by their repeal, his career was cut short by a stroke at the age of fifty, he was already almost forgotten by the time of his early death.

With a presentation of his papers to the National Library of Ireland in 1983, after forty years of storage in England, an opportunity has now arisen to reassess his contribution. The collection begins effectively with the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion when Scully is found moving in ascendancy opposition circles under the patronage of Lady Moira, at a time when the attitude of Catholics to the approaching Union was one of the critical questions of the day.