AFTER BRECHT In this dark pub on Capel Street I find the people I like most - Like weathered statues among the smoke, With worn and chipped features, Skin weathered and stained as the mahogany bar. None will ever make the cover of a glossy magazine, The stomachs strained by too much beer, Faces wrinkled as an unfolded map, Calling above the amplified guitars, banging tables Shouting out lyrics, falling over. The women laugh as the young men chat them up Behind a curtain of cigarette smoke And their husbands jostle at the bar. These are the containers who carry life, All a bit bruised, broken and part-mended, Fuelled by alcohol, music and dreams. -- Mr. Pat Quigley, author of novel "Borderland" (1994), born Monaghan, living in Dublin.