5.++The+Sniper

"The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty



 ....... 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.
 * 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.



 ....... “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.
 * Type of Work and Year of Publication **

**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. . //sa//. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Themes ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">__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. __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">War knows no boundaries — age, sex, location, time of day, family ties __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">. 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. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Climax ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;"> ....... The climax occurs when the IRA sniper discovers the identity of the enemy sniper. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Style ** __<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Rat-a-Tat Prose __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;"> ....... 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: > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">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. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Here is another: > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">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. __<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Sound and Sight Imagery __ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">O'Flaherty's sound and sight imagery is likewise uncomplicated and easy to understand, as the following examples illustrate: > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">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. > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">There was a flash and a bullet whizzed over his head. > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor. > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">The sniper fired again. The woman whirled round and fell with a shriek into the gutter. > <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">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. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">The Ironic Ending ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;"> ....... 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.
 * **<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">Historical Background **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;"> ....... 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. ||

Check out these links, and discover more on the background about the IRA and connections to the USA, Libya and others involved in perpetuating this conflict in Ireland.

PBS Online

Belfast

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Sinn Fein - IRA
 * CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING (Essay or letter) WRITING POSTS FOR YOUR NEXT SHORT STORY POST:**


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">"The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty **


 * Any choice below <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">should be about 4-5 paragraphs in length, completed in DOCs & uploaded to the post using "INSERT DOC" **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">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.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">2. Does urban warfare, like that in "The Sniper," affect the outlook and mental stability of combatants differently than battlefield fighting?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">3. Is modern Ireland still influenced by the outcome of the violence in the early 1920s?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">4. In an informative essay, write a short psychological profile the IRA sniper.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">5. Can the tactics of urban guerrillas — sniping, sabotage, terrorist bombings — be morally justified?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">6. Write a letter to your mother, explaining what happened on that fateful day.- pretend you were the Republican Sniper.. Make sure you use genuine feelings and emotions in the letter. <span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica;">.