Liam O Flaherty's The Sniper

In the short story “The Sniper,” author Liam O’Flaherty deals with a conflict that still has divided ireland since the civil war ended, showing few signs of lessening. The fighting takes place in the heart of Dublin, Ireland, after sundown. The Irish Republican Army is engaged in a civil war with the Free State. The youthful main character, the Republican sniper, has been affected by the war and is now a fanatical looking soldier, forced by warfare to grow up too fast. The sniper needs to operate as a seasoned warrior in order to live. If he fails to develop as a cunning fighter, he will not survive. “The Sniper” emphasizes a profound irony of civil war: A brother is pitted against his own brother---who, ironically, is poised to kill the republican

Soldiers shoot at the enemy, not individual people. Enemy targets don’t have names or faces, so they aren’t considered valuable human beings. They are nothing more than objects to be shot at from a distance. To support this O’Flaherty refrains from naming any of his characters. For example, in the story the author introduces our IRA sniper protagonist without ever mentioning the character’s name. O’Flaherty writes, On a rooftop...a republican sniper lay watching.”(p.8) for the rest of the story only the pronouns of he, him,and his refer to the protagonist. The antagonist, a Free State enemy soldier on an opposite rooftop is indirectly mention when the writer narrates, “...a bullet whizzed over his head...it came from the opposite side of the street.” (p.9) Even when we learn that enemy sniper just killed is our protagonist’s brother, this character still is not named. Furthermore, a lady killed on the street is only referred to as’... an woman, her head covered by a tattered shawl.” (p.9) She never gets specifically named, expect the readers are told that she is an informant. The author purposely avoids naming the characters to show us that in war people’s lives are not worthy of consideration. This is important to understand because the author is illustrating that the enemy will always shoot to kill without considering people as