Bob Murphy – footballer, music fan, dog walker, coffee drinker, hand shaker, train traveller and tree lover – has been a favourite of footy followers for many a year. Now captain of his beloved Western Bulldogs, he’s showing the young pups at the Kennel how to play the great game the right way. Collected here for the first time are the best of Bob’s much-loved weekly newspaper columns – including his ‘Fantasy Football League’ teams of film stars, musos and pollies. From the strange joy of a wet Melbourne winter to the challenge of playing on the sublime Stevie J, Murphy’s Lore shines with the warmth, wisdom and charm of the Dogs’ evergreen champion.

The legendary gang from Bulfinche's Pub in New York City returns in new stories in which: A bridge jumper is saved by a god in winged sneakers while the goddess of suicides & a guardian of graves hunt a beast that feeds on death; the cosmic chicken lays an egg as toilet goddesses & a god help Murphy out with a problem; a priest manages to stop a murder without breaking the seal of the confessional; talking babies reveal that some gods feast on certain souls in the afterlife & we find the succubus Ryth & angel Mathew are expecting; a foolish criminal tries to start a protection racket in the neighborhood of Bulfinche's Pub; a woman gets a last chance in a game of bingo where Death & The Fates are playing; a date rapist learns that Hell hath no fury like a baby shower; Hercules & other warriors learn it takes more than strength to be a hero; the satyr Fred saves a girl enslaved to a news anchor; The Mother of the Streets gets a job; & the only one who can save Paddy Moran & the world from the rising of an elder evil is... bartender John Murphy? PATRONS OF BULFINCHE'S PUB SPEAK OUT ON BARTENDER OF THE GODS: "IF EVERYONE IN THE WORLD READ THIS BOOK, IT WOULD BE A MUCH BETTER PLACE. It would mean that my son would have more royalties to spend on his mother," -Murphy's Mom. "I FOUND IT FASCINATING. THEN AGAIN, ALL I USUALLY HAVE TO READ IS TOMBSTONES," Moni, Lasa guardian of graves. "MUCH MORE PLEASANT THAN THE PROSPECT OF LABOR," Ryth, pregnant succubus. "I COULDN'T WISH FOR BETTER," Tommy, jinn, hot dog vender. "I COULD," Edgar Tonic, hot dog vender. PRAISE FOR THE MURPHY'S LORE SERIES: "THE CAST OF CHARACTERS AT BULFINCHE'S PUB IS ALWAYS CHANGING, BRINGING NEW LAUGHS, PERILS, & ADVENTURE. DON'T MISS THE LATEST INSTALLMENT OF THIS WONDERFUL SERIES." -Edward McFadden, FANTASTIC STORIES "JOIN HEX, PADDY & THE GANG IN THEIR RACE TO UNDO THE FUTURE IN PATRICK THOMAS'S FOOLS' DAY, PART OF HIS COMIC MURPHY'S LORE SERIES." PUBLISHER'S 'S WEEKLY "HUMOR, OUTRAGEOUS ADVENTURES, & SOME CLEVER PLOT TWISTS." -Don D'Ammassa, SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE

It's April Fool's Day at the bar at the end of the rainbow, and no one is safe from the pranksters, tricksters and aliens that plan to wreck havoc.

A complex character, angry and aggressive, James Murphy was not an easy husband or father. But all his children said "He made a God out of education." He had found education to be his gateway out of poverty, his way to leave a countryside still reeling from the Great Famine. Hadn't he grown up on the Irish Beara Peninsula, barefoot, speaking Irish in an earthen floor stone cottage? Wasn't he now a Minister in the Church of Ireland, and Trinity Colllege Dublin Professor of Irish, having competed against Douglas Hyde, later first President of Ireland, for the job? He drilled the learning, beating it into his children, all of whom bore the scars. Research into this Murphy family has continued throughout the 1900s, providing James Murphy’s great-granddaughter, Julia Turner, an opportunity to compile the archive of trunk-loads of papers into a cohesive, exciting read, utilizing modern computers and combining fading papers and photographs with internet research tools. This family grew up and lived in a late Victorian and an Edwardian yesteryear. People had lots of fun together, were full of joie-de-vivre. None had much money, but they thrived in a peaceful, gentler lifestyle, in ways not often found today.

Dublin is renowned for its amazing profusion of pubs and for its exuberant pub culture. In Dublin Pub Life and Lore, Professor Kevin Kearns examines the history of this phenomenon by speaking to old publicans, barmen and regular customers, relating the story of Dublin pubs and their patrons in an engaging and entertaining fashion. Traditionally in Ireland, the public house or 'pub' was the centre of a community's social life and a social institution ranking second in importance only to the parish church. Pubs ranged from dusky watering holes frequented by labourers, dockers and shawlies to elegant Victorian gin palaces where the gentry and literati gathered. Along the Dublin quays there were dives filled with scoundrels, prostitutes and misfits of every sort. Following the success of his bestselling classic Dublin Tenement Life, Kevin Kearns has researched and created a wonderful oral historical chronicle of Dublin's pub life. Based on conversations with old publicans, pub 'regulars' and long-serving barmen, Dublin Pub Life and Lore captures the folklore, customs, characters and wit of the traditional Dublin public house. Dublin Pub Life and Lore: Table of Contents Introduction - History and Evolution of Dublin Public Houses Origins and Uses of Alcohol A City of Taverns and Alehouses Dublin's Colourful Public Houses Drinking Customs of the Social Classes Disreputable Drinking Dens Proud and Prosperous Publicans Dublin Temperance Movement Government Inquiry into Intemperance and the Role of Public Houses Oral History and Pub Lore - Dublin Pub Culture and Social Life The Pub as a Living Social Institution The Publican's Role and Status Pub Regulars and Their Local Porters, Apprentices and Barmen Pubs as IRA Meeting Places Women on the "Holy Ground" The Pintman and His Pint Pub Customs and Traditions Pub Entertainment Singing Pubs Literary Pubs Notable Pub Characters Eccentric Publicans and Notorious Pubs Underworld of Shebeens, Kips and Speakeasies Famous Barmen's Strikes Transformation and Desecration of Venerable Pubs - Oral Testimony of Publicans and Barmen - Oral Testimony of Pub Regulars and Observers