Jack Murphy, radio producer
HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU SPEND ONLINE? I'm online constantly at work. At home I use it for entertainment and for shopping.
WHAT KIND OF THINGS DO YOU BUY ON THE INTERNET? I started by buying old vinyl records on eBay (www.ebay.ie) It nearly became an addiction. I amassed a fair collection of vinyl, stuff that you just can't get in second-hand record stores.
SO HOW DID YOU GET INTO BUYING CLOTHES ONLINE? I was buying old punk records and reading up on punk, and I got interested in these 1977 Vivienne Westwood T-shirts, like the ones the Sex Pistols used to wear. It turns out they cost about £1,000 (€1,500), so I got rid of that idea fairly fast. But I found a guy in England who was selling Vivienne Westwood clothes who is also the main buyer for the Vivienne Westwood Manchester shop. I bought two pairs of trousers from his eBay shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Anglomania1972) which have a bit of cultural significance. One was a great pair of pinstripe trousers that I got for £30.
ANY OTHER ONLINE CLOTHING PURCHASES OF NOTE? I bought a pair of Alexander McQueen Pumas, which I went looking for in town, but they weren't available. So I bought them online from Triads (www.triads.co.uk). I went into town and tried on Pumas, found that size 10 fitted perfectly, then ordered those ones online. I paid €140. I thought nobody would have them in Dublin, but then I saw them last week in Brown Thomas. They were going for €260.
ANY OTHER PURCHASES IN THE PIPELINE? I'm looking at a few things from Maharishi. They're an expensive London brand, and they're only sold here in Harvey Nichols in Dundrum. I'm about to buy a Maharishi Sun Worship T-shirt from Triads for £50. I think they go for around £200 in the shops. I'm also bidding on an All Saints Jesus Loves You belt, which costs about €100 in town. I'm bidding for the belt and an All Saints top, and the combined price is at £22.50.
DO YOU BUY ANYTHING ELSE ONLINE? I use Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk) a lot to buy books. The best thing about that site is that I can buy everything by one author at once. I recently bought John Wyndham's entire bibliography. Again, you find things you can't get in the shops.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU SPEND YOUR ONLINE TIME DOING? I use it a lot at work, checking news sites such as the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk) or RTÉ (). Workwise, I'd be lost without the online phone book (http://mmm.eircom.ie/phonebook) and An Post's website (www.anpost.ie) to track people down.
•Jack Murphy produces Marian Finucane on RTÉ Radio 1.