.......“The Sniper,” Liam O'Flaherty's first published work, is a short story. It was printed in London in the January 12, 1923, issue of a weekly socialist publication, The New Leader. 

Setting

......."The Sniper" takes place in Ireland's largest city, Dublin, on the country's east coast on Dublin Bay, an inlet of the Irish Sea. The time is nightfall in June after the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. The sniper posts himself on a rooftop in central Dublin near the Four Courts building, which houses the high courts of Ireland, and O'Connell Bridge, which spans the River Liffey. The Liffey divides the city into two sections as it runs eastward to Dublin Bay. 

Characters

IRA Sniper: Man posted on a roof in Dublin.
Opposing Sniper: Enemy gunman posted on a roof across from the IRA sniper.
Turret Gunner: Man shot by the IRA sniper.
Old Woman: Informer who betrays the position of the IRA sniper to the turret gunner.
Unseen Machine Gunner: Person who fires at the IRA sniper after the latter leaves the roof.

Point of View

.......O'Flaherty wrote "The Sniper" in limited third-person point of view, in which he presents the thoughts of the IRA sniper but does not present the thoughts of any other character. He wrote "The Sniper" while Ireland was embroiled in sectarian conflict. 
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Historical Background .......In 1919, the newly formed Irish Republican Army launched guerilla warfare during the Irish War of Independence to liberate Ireland from the British. Unable to contain the rebels, London agreed in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to create an Irish Free State. However, the agreement would recognize the Free State only as a dominion in the British Commonwealth of Nations. Moreover, it would permit six counties in northern Ireland to withdraw from the Free State, allow the British to maintain ports in the south, and require the Free State to pay part of the debt Britain incurred in waging the war. Consequently, not all Irishmen accepted the agreement, the provisions of which became effective in 1922. (The six northern counties seceded, as expected.) Once-united Irish fighters were now split into two factions—disgruntled IRA members and supporters of the Free State—and fought a civil war. O’Flaherty, himself a member of the IRA, centers his short story on a scene of fighting in Dublin in which an IRA sniper shoots at Free Staters from a rooftop.

.......Gunfire from the opposite roof then wounds the sniper in the arm. He drops his rifle as blood oozes from his wound, although he feels no pain. His arm is numb. He opens a first-aid kit and drips iodine onto the wound. Now there is pain. Then he places cotton on the wound, bandages it, and thinks about his predicament. He can no longer handle his rifle. He has only his revolver to defend himself. If he tries to get off the roof, he will be an easy target for the gunman across from him. A plan occurs to him, and he executes it immediately. Placing his hat on the muzzle of his rifle, he pokes the barrel over the roof parapet. A bullet zings through the hat. The sniper tilts the weapon so that the hat falls onto the street. Then he hangs his left hand limply over the roof. A moment later, he drops the rifle to the street and slumps to the roof, dragging his hand back over the parapet.

Author's Background

.......Novelist and short-story writer Liam O'Flaherty was born on August 28, 1898, in a poverty-stricken village on Inishmore Island in County Galway on the western coast of Ireland. He was the ninth of ten children of Michael and Margaret O'Flaherty. A good student, he studied for a time for the Roman Catholic priesthood. However, he later renounced his religion. 
.......In 1915, he enlisted in the British Army during the First World War and suffered a serious injury two years later in a bomb explosion at Langemarck, Belgium. After he recovered, the army discharged him because he had developed severe depression. He traveled widely, visiting South America, North America, and the Middle East and working at various odd jobs. 
.......When he returned to Ireland, he embraced communism, became an atheist, and joined the Irish Republican Army in its campaign to liberate Ireland from British rule. In 1921, Britain and Ireland forged a treaty creating an Irish Free State. But because the document made the new Irish state part of the British Commonwealth of Nations rather than a fully independent entity, O'Flaherty and his IRA compatriots broke with fellow Irishmen who supported the treaty. Several of O'Flaherty's novels center on the effects of war, revolution, and social upheaval in Ireland in the early twentieth century and in the nineteenth century. O'Flaherty died on Sept. 7, 1984, in Dublin.

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Themes 

War reduces human beings to mere objects. They have no names, no faces. They are targets, nothing more, to be shot at from a distance. To support this theme, O’Flaherty refrains from naming any of his characters. 
War knows no boundaries—age, sex, location, time of day, family ties. The IRA sniper is a young man, and the informer is an old woman. The fighting takes place in the heart of a city after sundown. The IRA sniper unwittingly shoots and kills his own brother.

Climax

.......The climax occurs when the IRA sniper discovers the identity of the enemy sniper.

Style

Rat-a-Tat Prose

.......O’Flaherty’s prose is straightforward and easy to understand. In "The Sniper," he frequently uses short sentences to maintain suspense, as if the sentences are quickening heartbeats. Here is an example: 

The turret opened. A man's head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

There was a small hole where the bullet had entered. On the other side there was no hole. The bullet had lodged in the bone. It must have fractured it. He bent the arm below the wound. The arm bent back easily. He ground his teeth to overcome the pain. 

O'Flaherty's sound and sight imagery is likewise uncomplicated and easy to understand, as the following examples illustrate:

Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.

His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. 

There was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head. 

The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. 

The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter.

Then the dying man on the roof crumpled up and fell forward. The body turned over and over in space and hit the ground with a dull thud.

.......The story ends ironically when the IRA sniper realizes that the enemy he killed was his own brother. But there are larger ironies here: first, that all of the sniper’s Free State enemies are his brothers, for they had been comrades in arms fighting for the same cause; second, that all men are brothers as descendants of Adam and Eve. When they fight, they become Cain and Abel. No doubt, the IRA sniper wonders about the identities of the turret gunner, the old woman, and the person manning the machine gun. 

Study Questions and Essay Topics

1.  After researching the life of O’Flaherty, write an informative essay explaining the extent to which he based “The Sniper” on his own.experiences.
2.  Does urban warfare, like that in "The Sniper," affect the outlook and mental stability of combatants differently than battlefield fighting?
3.  Is modern Ireland still influenced by the outcome of the violence in the early 1920s?
4.  In an informative essay, write a short psychological profile the IRA sniper.
5.  Can the tactics of urban guerrillas—sniping, sabotage, terrorist bombings—be morally justified?
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