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As a veteran of World War I, Liam O’Flaherty experienced the destruction, devastation, and tactics of combat firsthand. He returned to Ireland with a strong desire to bring about Irish independence and with personal experience of the tense waiting and life-or-death decisions of soldiers in the trenches of World War I. This experience informs his descriptions of the two snipers in “The Sniper,” as they watch each other uneasily across a street in Dublin during the Irish Civil War.
The Irish Civil War began in June 1922 and lasted until May 1923. The conflict erupted after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. This treaty followed the cessation of hostilities of the Irish War of Independence and declared that most of Ireland’s counties would become the Irish Free State, while the other counties remained part of Great Britain. The Treaty also stated that Ireland must accept the sovereignty of the British monarch. Some Irish leaders opposed this arrangement while others, wanting to stop the bloodshed, were willing to abide by the terms and conditions of the treaty. The Irish Civil War broke out between these coalitions. For many months, the pro- and anti-treaty parties fought each other until a cease-fire was issued in 1923.
“The Sniper” is set in Dublin during the Irish Civil War. The Free Staters, who support the treaty, accept British rule and are well armed by the British. The Republicans, in contrast, are engaged in guerilla warfare, which is captured in the descriptions of street-to-street fighting in the story. The June night on which the story is set happens during the Battle of the Four Courts, which took place June 28 through June 30, 1922, early in the war.
The Four Courts area, which had been occupied since April 1922 by Republican forces, included buildings that hosted important governmental functions such as the maintenance of public records and treasury activities. The National Army, or Free-Staters, mobilized to remove the anti-treaty Republicans from the area. Supported by British might, they did so successfully. Casualties were light, but the destruction to the buildings from “heavy guns” and by explosives detonated beneath buildings was extensive.
The story’s guerilla protagonist is on top of a residential building in the Four Courts area and can see one of the bridges that leads into the area. In the end, the Free Staters drove out the Republican occupiers and quickly began to restore governmental functions. This historical context emphasizes the story’s tragic ending; the sniper’s brother’s death, which comes at a great cost to the sniper, does not advance the sniper’s objective.
