Liam O’Flaherty

1. Liam O’Flaherty • 20th Century Irish novelist & short story author • Considered a major figure of the Irish Renaissance • Born August, 1896 in the remote Inishmore Island, County Galway – died September 1984 in Dublin • Attended a number of colleges, and joined the Irish Guards in 1917 • Fought in WWI on the Western Front – injured, suffered possible shell shock and mental collapse in the 1930’s • Returned to the front as a socialist, having been intrigued by Marxism as a schoolboy

2. “ The Sniper” • O’Flaherty wrote “The Sniper” in 1923 • His first published work of fiction. Written in a British socialist weekly entitled The New Leader • Launched his career as a writer • Depicted the Irish Civil War between the Free Staters and the Republicans taking place at that time • Depicts the split in the Irish Army during the civil war by following an IRA sniper’s encounter with an opposing sniper and a few others. The IRA sniper is depicted as young, student-like and damaged from war. This is exactly how O’Flaherty would have been at the time of writing “The Sniper”

3. Irish Civil War • Conflict between Irish Nationalists in 1922-23 stemming from the decision of the Anglo-Irish Treaty between British and Irish forces (stemming from the “War of Independence” • The treaty dissolved the Republic declared in 1918 and gave the 28 southern countries of Ireland a considerable freedom, yet still deemed a British commonwealth such as Canada and Australia • A split in the IRA - those pro-treaty and those anti-treaty – initiated the Irish Civil War • O’Flaherty supported the IRA opposition of British involvement in the Irish Free State and joined the cause

4. Connection • O’Flaherty, having fought in World War I and joining the IRA’s cause against British rule in Ireland, wrote “The Sniper” to depict the times he was living in – a war torn country fighting each other for provisions of British rule in a treaty between Great Britain and Ireland. • He suffered injuries in his tenure during WWI, and was discharged for reasons related to depression (he later suffered mental collapses in the early 1930’s). • Politics & culture played a major role in O’Flaherty’s pieces, especially “The Sniper” • “The Sniper” was written during the Irish Civil War for a socialist weekly that depicted the political war between the new Irish Free Staters and the Republican opposition • The main character of “The Sniper” is a young man with the “face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.” • -- This main character is a Republic sniper, fighting the same anti-treaty cause O’Flaherty did in 1921-22. He also depicts the face of a student which O’Flaherty had been for many years before fighting in WWI where he witnessed the horrors of war at the age of 16 and sustaining injuries just as the Republic sniper does in his short story. • Being that the Irish Civil War was fought between countrymen, friends, and possibly family, the end of “The Sniper” has the main character identify the body of a man he killed as his brother. Considering the split in the Irish Republic Army from the Anglo-Irish Treaty, this was very well possible to had happen in Ireland during the time of this story.