I'm surprised I survived that place. A battering every day from the nuns. I just couldn't keep out of trouble, you know. 

The orphanage was my life until the day I turned seventeen. Handed a suitcase, an envelope of cash, and turfed out onto the street. 

Grand, I thought. So, Dublin it was. Where else could I go? 

Found myself a cheap flat through the services. High up in the Liberties. No place for a young woman. Took a job as a barmaid, I have the Gift of the gab, so they say. Never stop talking or they might ask something ye don't want to answer ... that's my story. 

But I couldn't stay in one place. If ye did, the loneliness would get you. So I took every job I could get. Bar, nightclub, even those fancy Gentlemen's clubs. Yes, I could talk my way into anywhere, so I could. 

So, three years drifting and here I am. Darkey Kelly's. Found my family, you know. Deirdre the barmaid, Seán the landlord. A grand couple, so they are. They saw me right. Got me a tiny flat up near Phoenix Park. Not much, but it's mine. And its not the Liberties. 

I work most nights, it keeps me sane. 

The customers? Just like me really, sat in a corner or tied to the bar, lost to life. 

So what will it be? A pint of the black stuff? And no, ye cant have a fecking shamrock on it!