Madam, - I have recently embarked on a biographical study of FJ McCormick (whose real name was Peter Judge), reckoned by many theatre historians and indeed by many of his peers to have been the greatest Abbey actor of all time.
However, notwithstanding his 30-year involvement with the Abbey (1917-1947), his splendid realisation of a very wide range of characters from Oedipus to Joxer Daly (McCormick's was and still remains the definitive interpretation of that role) to Mungo in Walter Macken's Mungo's Mansions, and his matchless portrayal of Shell in the Carol Reed film, Odd Man Out (1947), very little of this great artist's work appears to have survived in accessible form.
Accordingly, I would be most grateful to any of your readers in possession of memorabilia, letters, theatre programmes, audio recordings of any kind, reviews, etc, or those of them who can recall seeing McCormick on stage, if they would contact me.
Needless to say,where people would have supplied material on loan, I would be fastidious in my handling of originals or copies of original documents, would return them promptly to their owners, and make proper acknowledgement of such loans in the foreword to the book. Thank you. - Yours etc,
Dr PATRICK BURKE, Department of English, St Patrick's College, Dublin 9.