Fred,
Sorry, don't believe you; your somewhat unpleasantly childish style of invective is too easily recognisable – particularly in your Dan Druff persona (a name I have heard you utter in the past by the way and one I have always associated with my childhood in our mutually native Merseyside). The fact that the 'Dog and Gun' thread dried up when the 'Collector For Sale' one appeared is indicative that you and your friend were the instigators. If there is, by coincidence, another feeble mind somewhere out there producing this garbage, I apologise unreservedly – you do agree it is feeble – minded garbage, don't you? (I don't really expect an answer to this!) If I had been guilty of inventing the Pat Mackenzie (you still haven't got the spelling quite right) contributions I think I might have managed to spell her name correctly, don't you?
You are right, I don't play an instrument and I am a mediocre singer, that's why I gave up singing, though I would point out that this mediocrity applies equally to both of us and I don't think you play an instrument either. As for your academic talents – ah well – your 'Big League comment indicates that you have great time for yourself as they say over here (that extremely revealing phrase will haunt you for a long time to come and the fact that you are unable to recognise the self-important arrogance that it suggests speaks volumes!).
I'm afraid I can't claim credit for the "Wallis and Grommit" title; that seems to be circulating widely over here at present.
I reiterate I am not Bemusedpunter, if I were I would happily own up to it as I was breathless with admiration as I watched her run rings around the pair of you. The point she made, that her identity was of no importance to the questions she asked and the views she expressed was quite correct (haven't you noticed that the vast majority of Mudcat contributors use pseudonyms – I presume you object to their doing so also – not to mention friend Geoff's somewhat cloak-and-dagger antics on Irtrad)? Following your foul-mouthed outburst, there is little wonder she preferred to keep her identity secret (though I will give you credit for not resorting to threats of physical violence as your friend Geoff did).
Regarding your review of the Elizabeth Cronin book (at last it seems that we have got beyond the "what is your real name" stage), in fact I have said very little about it. I didn't participate in the original correspondence and referred to it only twice on Irtrad. Having said that, I did find it a piece of mean-minded self-serving towards somebody who is not involved in traditional song and was generous enough to make available his grandmother's songs along with personal family insights that no other writer would have been capable of sharing. I for one am extremely grateful for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín's contribution to my knowledge of Elizabeth Cronin; I certainly gained none from your review. Despite your claim that you devoted half of your 7,621 words to discussing Mrs Cronin's singing, I can only find 197 words on the subject, 92 of which are a 40 year old quote from Ewan MacColl, so in all you wrote 105 of your own words on one of the most important Irish traditional singers – is that really all you considered she was worth? As far as I can find, you made no effort whatsoever to discuss her songs. If I have misjudged you in any way it should be an easy enough matter to put me right with a few quotes.
I did of course enjoy The Road From Connemara, though that was more to do with the work that Joe, Ewan and Peggy put in rather than your efforts. I felt, as did others over here, that it would have been preferable if the editing and notes had been carried out by an Irish-speaker who knew Connemara, however, I most certainly did enjoy the recordings. As for my letting the recordings languish; this is hardly the case as I have passed on dozens of copies to whoever was interested, including yourself; I believe I introduced you to them in the first place. I would never have dreamed issuing them for the reasons stated; I am much more at home with our own field recordings. I have to say I was very perturbed at your 'blatant piracy' posting to Irtrad when you objected to somebody else passing on the material.    Joe was generous enough to share his songs, experiences and opinions with Ewan and Peggy who were in turn generous enough to pass the recordings on to people like myself. I was quite happy to pass them on top you, but it appeared that the tradition stopped with you when you objected strenuously to somebody passing the material on to a wider audience – I thought that's what we were here for.
I confess I was not aware of your analysis of MacColl's ideology; I will make up for that lack of knowledge as soon as I am able to see if it is in fact the "only concise analysis of MacColl's ideological and theoretical perspective on folksong that has ever been published". I do find your attitude to MacColl somewhat ambivalent. The interview that appears in Mike Brocken's 'The British Folk Revival' attributed to you, springs to mind.
"He (MacColl) would allow only three floor singers and would cancel them all at a whim if he thought it necessary….. That's the way he ran things; for himself". I know this to be an extremely inaccurate description of MacColl and The Singers Club and find it totally representative of the 'folkie' nonsense that has prevented a serious examination of MacColl's contribution to the revival down the years. In fairness to yourself I have to admit to being somewhat puzzled by the quote as, when we last met some years ago in Salford you told me – and several others – that you had never given an interview to Mike Brocken, so maybe there has been a mix-up somewhere along the line. Admittedly he did attribute the interviews to 'Fred McCormick, singer' so there may well be another bearing that name.
I really do not know what is happening with you or Musical Traditions Fred. It appears to me that you set out quite deliberately to rubbish a published collection of songs from one of Ireland's greatest traditional singers for which you received the full support of the editor. Last year another Musical Traditional reviewer set out to rubbish a collection of Clare singers using more-or-less the same methods as your own, with the added refinement of insulting the singers either directly ("he sings like a woman", "stage tenor" (the same singer was on Lambs On The Green Hills which Wallis described as "the classic song collection") etc.), or indirectly by ignoring them. Again this reviewer received the support of the editor. Is this really how you people see your role in the field of traditional music? Some time ago you described yourself as the assistant editor of Musical Traditions. Are we to assume that your approach is the in-house style of reviewing? If so, god help traditional music.
I don't know if your review affected the sales of Ó Cróinín's book; Tom Munnelly has pointed out how if has affected any future access to that family's work on the tradition.

Jim Carroll

Isn't it a curious coincidence how this thread seems to have dried up since your last posting Fred?