OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
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The new Murphy’s law

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Murphy also organized pub crawls, summer cruises and unofficial Christmas parties for his colleagues. Eventually, the man about town knew so much about the town that friends suggested that he write a guide to New York nightlife.
A word with a friend in a publishing company convinced Murphy that while it was a good idea, he would have to make a name for himself first if the book was to be written. After all, who would accept social advice from someone they have never heard of.
Thus inspired, in 1997, Murphy decided to set up a website that would guarantee viewers a fun night out and would familiarize people with his name. Murphguide.com was born.
With a tagline that reads, “Connecting the fun to the fun people,” the website has details of hundreds of bars, clubs and other places of social congress with a special focus on Irish venues. “I am Irish American,” Murphy said. “That is what I like.”
There are descriptions of parties being thrown, what DJs feature in what clubs and where singles might best meet up with other singles.
Initially, it was only Murphy’s friends who logged on to see what was happening each night. Gradually, through word of mouth, the traffic grew, and now Murphy sends out a weekly newsletter to more than 7,000 subscribers.
As of two years ago, because of the ever-increasing interest in the site, the 38-year-old Long Island native now works full-time from the comfort of his Upper East Side home in order to save on overheads. He finds that he does his best work at late night.
“It is a good discipline to go to the office,” he said. “Here, the phone rings and there are other distractions, so I tend to work on the site late at night.”
Dthough Murphy earns less than he did in his former employment, his wife supports his venture completely. “We actually met through the site,” he said, adding that a young woman called Jeannie Murphy had emailed him to comment on the site.
They had communicated online for a few months, finally meeting for a drink after work. Four years later, they were married.
“Even if the website did nothing else, it has already been worth it,” Murphy said, laughing.
With an electrical engineering background from Manhattan College, Murphy had worked at various telephone companies for 13 years but had concluded that it was not the ideal career for him.
“It was not my passion,” he said.
Having realized that engineering was not his true calling, Murphy went back to school and earned an MBA from Fordham University. With that added business expertise, he went about putting the website together.
“I left a secure job with a secure company [Verizon] to do this full-time,” he said. “The initial start-up costs are not much. I paid about $30 for the name Murphguide and organized someone to host the site for me.”
A friend taught him html, the language used to write a website and the rest he did himself.
The self-confessed organizer also manages a softball team that plays in Central Park every week. Murphy is convinced that his Cork-born parents passed on the organizational gene to him.
His father, Leo, is an active member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Babylon, L.I., and is the one who ensures that the Gaelic matches are broadcast every Sunday morning at his club.
A typical party thrown by Murphy might cost $40 per person and include dinner and drinks. Murphy is then entitled to a percentage of the takings. One senses, however, that he does it more for the camaraderie than the scant financial rewards.
Now, the idea that spurred the creation of the website has disappeared. He no longer plans to write a book. Instead, his ideal is to eventually have a representative in every area of the five boroughs, scouting for the latest hot places to dance, drink and meet other people.
He wants to create one huge, underground family of people who can have a great night out with a nudge in the right direction.
Currently in talks with Sean Miller, the founder of a website called hoboken-bar.net, in Hoboken, N.J., Murphy is hopeful that a merger between the two sites is on the cards.
“They are similar sites,” he said. “When we first met at a party, we made a gentleman’s agreement. If either of us ever decided to expand into covering different areas of the city, that we would tell each other and that we would do it together.”
No matter how busy he gets, Murphy enjoys responding to the huge volume of emails he receives every week. “
“I sometimes get messages from out-of-towners saying they are coming to the city for a weekend,” he said. “They ask me where they should go and I email them back with advice or an itinerary.”
He loves New York and is eager for others to enjoy it too. “It is an urban wilderness,” he said. “There is so much to explore.”

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