Based on the Ray Bradbury short story "The Anthem Sprinters," also known as "The Queen's Own Evaders." The story was first published in Playboy (June 1963)

Douglas: Douglas is the name. And writer I am. For me, a second-hand bookshop is bliss at any time. But when it beckons from the banks of the Liffey in the midst of Dublin's fair city, then it is paradise itself. And this paradise contained treasure. A first edition from 1916, of that wonderful autobiography of youth, which reading in my teens, had made me certain I would be a writer. An enchanted shop. For with my prize from the past, I stepped straight into a happening... and the beginning of a story.

O'Gavin: Oh sure, it's money that rules the world. It's music that holds down the friction.

Changes from the short story:

* A new subplot with Douglas buying a James Joyce autobiography, and wagering it in the anthem sprint against a rare theater programme, is created.
*The tavern owner, Heeber Finn, isn't found in the short story.
* Hoolihan in the short story becomes Doone in the episode, and the role is greatly expanded by having him as the one who brings Douglas into the pub. Doone in the short story becomes a new character, O'Gavin, in the episode.