The Irish past-tense construction is peculiar within the English language, its manifestations a vestige of Gaelic Irish.
In the simple past tense, the Irish say "[am/is/are] after _-ing."
• Example: "He's after writing a letter" — "He wrote a letter."
To form the "recent news" past tense, the Irish say "I'm only after _-ing," which means "I just _-ed"
In the perfect past tense, the form that in standard English uses "had _-ed," the Irish say "[was/were] after _-ing."
• Example: "I was after buying the paper" means "I had bought the paper."
It is also common that the past-tense conditional is quite Irish — "would have been" is often expressed as "were/was."
• Example: "One more step and you were f**ked."