Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rev E Scully, Unknown date of death

Fr E Scully was a Priest of the Vincentian Order and was, for a short time, an Assistant to the Ipswich Parish. He was a firm supporter of Bishop Quinn and at one time was the Vicar General of Toowoomba.

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, pp 36-37:
Fr Edmund (James) Scully (CM)

Fr Edmund Scully is recorded as ministering in Queensland in 1862 and 1863. He arrived in Queensland in late 1861 six months after Bishop James Quinn. Pugh's Almanac nominates him as a CM (a member of the Congregation of the Mission – Vincentian fathers), and VG.

Dr Chris Hanlon's research shows that: he joined the Irish branch of the Vincentians in Dublin in 1836 but left them again in 1840 before making his final profession. Nevertheless, he maintained a relationship with them for the rest of his life. … In May 1862, he visited Rockhampton with Fr Patrick Duhig, celebrating the first Mass in the Court House during a fortnight's mission in the town.(1)

Fr Edmund Scully is mentioned in A Short History of St Vincent's Catholic Church in Sheffield, England.

Fr Scully was an Irish missionary priest. He had been prominent in assisting in the establishment of St Vincent's, Castleknock; St Peter's, Phibsborough and St Vincent's, Cork. In 1850 Fr Scully was head priest at St Patrick's in Leeds. He was appointed to take charge of St Mary's mission in Sheffield shortly after a new St Mary's church was opened on 11 September 1851. He faced a problem with the thousands of poor Irish immigrants not feeling welcomed by the indigenous English. He took the matter strongly in hand by purchasing land and building a school-chapel in the middle of the Crofts where the Irish migrants lived in poor conditions. On the 24 October 1853 he purchased a dwelling to serve as a Community House for Irish clergy of the Vincentian congregation to set up a mission to the extensive migrant community.(2) Fr Edmund was still at Norfolk Row in Sheffield in 1855.(3)

He arrived in Melbourne on the Great Britain (Captain John Gray) on 5 February 1860.(4)

Apparently he was conducting missions in Australia as this newspaper report indicates:

Address to Father Scully
The following address was presented to Father Scully by the inhabitants of East and West Maitland, during his late mission to those districts:- Rev and Dear Sir – On behalf of the Catholics of East and West Maitland, we beg to convey to you their most grateful acknowledgement for your zeal and unremitting attention during the last week to the cause of religion and morality in this district. Though your stay amongst us was necessarily short, we feel convinced that the earnestness and ability which have characterised your teachings here will leave behind them an impression which will not soon be forgotten. The crowds that have assembled from other parts of the district to approach the tribunal of penance, and to hear your energetic and soul-stirring appeals, fully testify that your exertions have been appreciated, and that a stimulant has been given to our holy religion, which will no doubt, be the means of inducing the best of us to perform hereafter with increased ardour the doctrines and practices of that one Church to which it is our especial happiness and glory to belong. Being aware rev and dear sir, of the expense which in travelling you must necessarily incur, your acceptance of the accompanying purse, containing ninety –six sovereigns (£96) is requested, not so much, however, on account of its intrinsic value as showing a further mark of the manner in which your success as a minister of Christ have been appreciated, and of the esteem which is entertained for you by the Catholics of this district. In conclusion that success and every blessing may attend your heavenly mission, is and will always be the fervent prayer of the Catholics of this district. November 25th, 1861.(5)

Bishop Quinn invited Scully to join Dr Cani as a vicar general and consultor in his diocese.(6) They followed out commands with respect to Fr William McGinty and the Ipswich dissidents of 1862.(7) Scully was sent to Ipswich by Bishop Quinn to administer the parish during the dispute that raged between the Bishop and the parish priest.' The bishop wanted Fr McGinty to return to the diocese of Sydney and to hand over funds donated for a new church in Ipswich. Quinn stated that 'Prayerfully and with the advice of his clergy the bishop regulated the ecclesiastical affairs of his diocese'. A bitter debate ensued. Mr Patrick O' Sullivan, a leading figure in Ipswich and later an MLA, as a trustee in Ipswich protested against the bishop's decisions.(8) In July 1862 Fr Scully spoke out fiercely from the pulpit in Ipswich condemning Mr O'Sullivan. In return O'Sullivan wrote to the Queensland Times a lengthy letter, saying: 'you have, on the last two Sundays, done all you could to defame and injure me before the congregation, and have done the same privately through the town.'(9) Mr O'Sullivan eventually gave in. The bishop won. Fr McGinty was demoted going to Rockhampton and then to Bowen, where he died. The French priest, Père René Cusse, had supported McGinty prior to this and in his many clashes with the bishop left the colony in 1862. Fr Scully eventually fell out with the bishop and left the diocese in 1863.(10)

Sydney's Catholic press reported him to be in Melbourne on St Patrick's Day, 1863.

St Patrick's Day in Melbourne
Yesterday being St Patrick's Day, there was a holiday at the Government offices, at the law courts, and at the banks. … At St Francis's Church, Pontifical High Mass was celebrated, after which a sermon was preached by the Rev E Scully. There was a crowded congregation, and a liberal collection was made in aid of the funds for the erection of St Patrick's Cathedral.(11)

Fr Scully set out from Melbourne on a return journey to Liverpool, England, aboard the Great Britain, on 12 May 1863.(12) He had spent just over three years in Australia. 'Subsequently, he is said to have served in England, Scotland and Ireland.'(13)

Dr Chris Hanlon tells us that Fr Scully 'died in Dublin on 19 March 1891 and is buried in the Vincentian cemetery in Castleknock Co Dublin. The circumstances of his death are unknown.'(14)

Footnotes
1. Dr Chris Hanlon, Brisbane Archdiocesan archives, notes on Edmund Scully, June 2003.
2. Ted Cummings, History of St Vincent's in Sheffield – As it was in the beginning 1836-1853.
3. 1855 English residential directory.
4. Age, Melbourne, 6 Feb 1860, p. 4, col. 1.
5. Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 21 Dec 1861 p. 6.
6. Pugh's Almanac in 1862.
7. Yvonne Margaret McLay, James Quinn, First Catholic Bishop of Queensland, 1979, p. 54.
8. Ibid, pp 63 to 67.
9. Queensland Times - Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 1 Aug 1862, p. 2.
10. Yvonne Margaret McLay, op. cit. p. 80 and p. 58.
11. Freeman's Journal, 23 Mar 1863, p. 5.
12. Freeman's Journal, 9 May 1863, p. 5, col 2 and Argus, Saturday 2 May 1863, p. 4 col. 1.
13. Chris Hanlon, Information on Edmund Scully in Brisbane Archdiocesan Archives, June 2003.
14. Ibid.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.