A Statement of the Penal Laws, Which Aggrive the Catholics of Ireland: With Commentaries. In Two Parts. Dublin: H. Fitzpatrick, 1812. Second Edition Enlarged. Pp xii, 370. Contemporary full calf, worn & scuffed, lacks endpapers; inner margin to last page (Appendix) of text damaged affecting a few words of the text, ex library stamps, otherwise contents pages generally clean throughout.

Denys Scully (1773-1830) was a political writer and champion of catholic emancipation. This, his most important work, was published anonymously. It was well received, but earned the publisher, Hugh Fitzpatrick a term of imprisonment for a libel in a footnote in part II (page 229) for libel on the Duke of Richmond.

Although his contribution to the campaign for catholic emancipation has been obscured by the later ascendancy of Daniel O’Connell, Scully made a major contribution to the catholic cause, particularly in the period of the Napoleonic wars.