The Sniper quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary genres best describe "The Sniper"?

   • Satire & Dark Comedy
   • Correct answer: War Fiction & Realism
   • Gothic Horror & Fantasy
   • Romanticism & Adventure
   • Modernism & Mystery

   War Fiction & Realism is the best fit. The story portrays actual combat with a spare, journalistic accuracy — real streets, real weapons, real wounds — while delivering a devastating anti-war message through the shocking twist of the brother reveal. This combination of gritty fidelity to life and purposeful moral weight defines both genres.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Where and when does "The Sniper" take place?

   • On a Belfast rooftop near an alleyway during the Easter Rising of 1916
   • In a trench on the western front in France during World War I in 1918
   • On a Dublin street corner during a British military crackdown in 1920
   • Correct answer: On a Dublin rooftop near O'Connell Bridge during the Irish Civil War in 1922

   The story is set on a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge in Dublin during the Irish Civil War of 1922. O'Flaherty specifically names the Four Courts — the building seized by Republican forces — and the River Liffey, placing the action squarely in the early weeks of the Irish Civil War, which began in June 1922.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What sides are fighting each other in the Irish Civil War depicted in the story?

   • Irish Republicans and British soldiers
   • Catholics and Protestants
   • Correct answer: Republicans and Free Staters
   • Nationalists and Unionists

   The story explicitly identifies the warring factions as Republicans and Free Staters — Irishmen who split over whether to accept the Anglo-Irish Treaty that gave Ireland partial independence. The protagonist is a Republican sniper; the enemy he fights and kills is a Free Stater. Both are Irish.

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4. 4

   Question 4. How does O'Flaherty describe the Republican sniper's face and eyes at the story's opening?

   • Correct answer: He has the thin, ascetic face of a student but eyes with the cold gleam of the fanatic
   • He has a boyish, innocent face that contrasts sharply with the rifle in his hands
   • He has a hardened, expressionless face and blank eyes that betray no emotion whatsoever
   • He has a weathered, battle-scarred face with fierce, proud eyes full of veteran confidence

   O'Flaherty writes that the sniper has '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 look at death.' This description immediately establishes the central tension: the sniper is educated and thoughtful, yet has been transformed by war and ideology into something colder and more ruthless.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does the sniper shoot the old woman in the street below?

   • She is a Free State soldier disguised in civilian clothing attempting to capture him
   • Correct answer: She is acting as an informer, pointing out the sniper's position to the armoured car
   • She fires on him first from street level, wounding him in the initial exchange
   • She is attempting to remove his dead enemies' weapons from the street below

   The old woman approaches the armoured car from a side street and points toward the roof where the Republican sniper is hiding — she is an informer revealing his position to the Free State soldiers. The sniper first shoots the man in the turret of the armoured car, then shoots the woman when she tries to flee. This scene shows how civil war makes enemies of civilians and erases the boundary between combatant and non-combatant.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How is the sniper wounded, and what does the wound prevent him from doing?

   • He takes a bullet in the chest from the armoured car, making rooftop escape impossible
   • He is grazed on the shoulder by a ricochet, which only slows his movement slightly
   • Correct answer: A bullet strikes his right forearm and lodges in the bone, leaving him unable to use his rifle
   • He is hit in the left hand as he reaches for his rifle, forcing him to crawl for cover

   The enemy sniper's bullet hits the Republican sniper in his right forearm and lodges in the bone, fracturing it. His arm is effectively useless — he cannot lift his rifle. He must treat his own wound with field dressing and iodine, then devise an entirely new plan to kill the enemy with only a revolver at fifty yards.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does the sniper do immediately after he is shot, before thinking of a plan?

   • He takes a long drink from his whiskey flask to steady his nerves and deaden the pain
   • He crawls behind the chimney stack so the opposite sniper cannot fire at his position
   • He lights a second cigarette and uses the darkness to change his position
   • Correct answer: He dresses his own wound with a field kit, using iodine and cotton wadding

   Despite being shot, the sniper coolly dresses his own wound. He rips open his sleeve with a knife, drips iodine into the wound ('a paroxysm of pain swept through him'), places cotton wadding over it, and wraps the dressing — tying the ends with his teeth. Only then does he lie still and plan his next move.

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8. 8

   Question 8. How does the Republican sniper trick the enemy sniper into revealing himself?

   • Correct answer: He places his cap over his rifle muzzle, raises it above the parapet, lets it fall, and dangles his arm lifelessly
   • He shouts across to the enemy, pretending to surrender, and shoots as the enemy stands to accept
   • He crawls to a different rooftop position and fires from an unexpected angle across the street
   • He lights a cigarette so the flash draws the enemy into the open, then fires from an unexpected angle

   The sniper places his cap over the muzzle of his rifle and raises it slowly above the parapet. The enemy shoots through it. The sniper slants the rifle so the cap slips down into the street, lets his left hand hang lifelessly over the roof edge, then drops the rifle to the street and sinks down as if dead. Convinced he has made his kill, the enemy stands up before the chimney pots, silhouetted against the sky — and the Republican sniper uses his revolver to shoot him from fifty yards.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does "Ascetic" mean in this story?

   • Given to physical luxury, personal comfort, and the open pursuit of pleasure
   • Rugged and weather-beaten from long exposure to outdoor conditions
   • Concerned with beauty and physical appearance rather than with moral conduct
   • Correct answer: Marked by severe self-discipline and avoidance of indulgence or luxury

   Ascetic describes someone practicing severe self-discipline and abstaining from physical pleasures — a word often associated with monks or scholars. O'Flaherty pairs it with 'student' to suggest the sniper is intelligent and ideologically committed rather than brutish. The word also captures his lean, spare appearance: hunger, discipline, and war have stripped away everything soft.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What makes the revolver shot particularly impressive and difficult?

    • Correct answer: The distance is fifty yards, the light is dim, and his right arm is in agony from the wound
    • He must fire from his left hand at a target he can barely see through thick smoke
    • The sniper must fire upward at an awkward angle while completely concealed behind the parapet
    • The target is moving quickly, and the sniper has only one bullet remaining in the chamber

    O'Flaherty emphasizes that this is 'a hard shot in the dim light' at about fifty yards, and that 'his right arm was paining him like a thousand devils.' His hand trembles with eagerness and pain. He presses his lips together, takes a deep breath, and fires. The fact that he makes this shot despite his wound and the conditions underscores his skill and determination.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What happens immediately after the sniper fires the revolver shot that nearly kills him by accident?

    • He shouts in triumph, alerting nearby enemy soldiers to his rooftop position
    • Correct answer: He hurls the revolver down and it discharges, sending a bullet past his own head
    • He drops the revolver off the roof by mistake and is briefly left entirely unarmed
    • He loses consciousness briefly from the pain and recoil of firing with his wounded arm

    After watching his enemy fall, the sniper is seized by remorse and revulsion. In a moment of emotional collapse, 'with an oath he hurled it [the revolver] to the roof at his feet.' The revolver goes off on impact, and the bullet whizzes past the sniper's own head — nearly killing him by accident. The shock jolts him back to his senses.

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12. 12

    Question 12. How does the sniper react immediately after shooting the enemy sniper dead?

    • He immediately focuses on escaping the rooftop before dawn exposes his position
    • He is relieved and calm, satisfied that he has completed his mission successfully
    • Correct answer: He is bitten by remorse and revulsion, cursing the war and himself as his nerves collapse
    • He feels a surge of pride and lights a celebratory cigarette in defiance of danger

    O'Flaherty writes that immediately after the kill, 'the lust of battle died in him. He became bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out in beads on his forehead.' The sniper is revolted by the sight of his dead enemy, his teeth chatter, and he curses the war, himself, and everybody. This emotional collapse reveals the human cost behind his soldierly skill — and sets up the devastating final discovery.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What does "Paroxysm" mean in this story?

    • A complete loss of physical movement or feeling in the body after a serious wound
    • A gradual, lasting sensation of dull pain that does not fade away
    • A mild, passing sensation of pain after a moment of extreme danger
    • Correct answer: A sudden, violent outburst of pain, emotion, or uncontrollable activity

    A paroxysm is a sudden, violent attack or outburst — of pain, laughter, coughing, or emotion. When the sniper drips iodine into his wound, 'a paroxysm of pain swept through him.' The word captures the overwhelming, uncontrollable nature of the sensation — pain so intense it seizes the whole body at once.

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14. 14

    Question 14. Why does the sniper decide to cross the street and look at the enemy he has killed?

    • He must report to his commanding officer before morning exposes his position
    • Correct answer: He is curious about who the enemy was and wonders if he knew him before the war's split
    • He wants to make sure the enemy is actually dead and not faking a fall in return
    • He needs to retrieve the enemy's rifle and remaining ammunition for his own use

    O'Flaherty writes that the sniper 'felt a sudden curiosity as to the identity of the enemy sniper whom he had killed.' He thinks the enemy was a good shot and wonders 'did he know him. Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army.' This curiosity — rooted in the possibility of shared history — is what drives him to take the risk of crossing the street. His intuition proves devastatingly correct.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What does "Fanatic" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: A person filled with excessive, uncritical zeal for a cause or belief
    • A thoughtful person who remains open to opposing political views
    • A person who is unusually skilled at their craft through years of training
    • A leader who inspires loyalty through charisma and force of personality

    A fanatic is someone driven by extreme, uncritical devotion to a cause — willing to act without mercy in service of an ideology. O'Flaherty says the sniper's eyes carry 'the cold gleam of the fanatic.' The word implies that ideology has overridden normal human sympathy — a quality essential for a sniper, but one the story ultimately reveals as deeply destructive when turned against one's own kin.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What type of irony is at work in the story's final revelation?

    • Verbal irony, because the sniper says the opposite of what he means when he calls the enemy a good shot
    • Dramatic irony, because the reader knows the enemy is his brother long before the sniper does
    • Correct answer: Situational irony, because the sniper unknowingly kills the person he would least want to have killed
    • Cosmic irony, because fate specifically chooses to punish this sniper above all others in the war

    The story's climax is a powerful example of situational irony — the outcome is the opposite of what the character (and reader) expects or would want. The sniper, acting from professional necessity and even a measure of pride in his skill, has killed his own brother. The twist reframes the entire story: a military success becomes a personal catastrophe, and the abstract tragedy of civil war becomes painfully, intimately concrete.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What does "Beleaguered" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: Surrounded and besieged by enemy forces, under sustained military pressure
    • Damaged and partially destroyed by heavy artillery or explosive fire
    • Darkened and made invisible by nightfall or by natural camouflage
    • Overwhelmed with troops and fortified to resist any possible military assault

    Beleaguered means surrounded or under siege by hostile forces — a military term for a position that is besieged and under sustained pressure. O'Flaherty describes 'the beleaguered Four Courts' — the building seized by Republican forces and besieged by Free State artillery. The word immediately places the reader in the middle of active urban warfare.

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18. 18

    Question 18. What does the brother revelation say about the nature of civil war?

    • Civil war is tragic but necessary when fundamental principles of governance are at stake
    • Correct answer: Civil war divides families and forces people who share blood and history to destroy each other
    • Civil war hardens soldiers beyond recovery, turning all of them into unfeeling killers
    • Civil war is caused by foreign interference that turns natural allies into bitter enemies

    The revelation that the sniper has killed his own brother is O'Flaherty's most powerful statement about civil war: it does not pit nation against nation, but turns a people against itself, destroying even the most intimate human bonds. Two brothers from the same family have ended up on opposite sides of the Republican-Free State split. The political has become fratricidal — and the sniper's military victory is simultaneously the worst loss of his life.

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19. 19

    Question 19. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The sniper risks lighting a cigarette despite knowing the flash could reveal his position.

      Happened

      O'Flaherty describes the sniper pausing to consider whether to risk a smoke, deciding to take the chance, and then almost immediately having a bullet flatten against the parapet — his position revealed by the match's flash. The detail establishes both his risk-taking nature and the constant danger he faces.

    • The old woman fires a weapon at the sniper before he shoots her.

      Didn't happen

      The old woman is an informer, not a combatant. She approaches the armoured car and points out the sniper's position, then tries to run when shooting breaks out. The sniper fires at her as she flees — she never shoots at him. This is what makes her death morally complex: she is a civilian acting as an intelligence asset.

    • The bullet that wounds the sniper lodges in the bone of his forearm.

      Happened

      When the sniper examines his wound with his knife, he finds 'a small hole where the bullet had entered' and 'on the other side there was no hole' — the bullet has lodged in the bone. He deduces it must have fractured the bone when he bends the arm and feels it give way unnaturally.

    • The sniper uses his rifle to make the final killing shot against the enemy.

      Didn't happen

      The sniper cannot use his rifle — his right arm is too badly wounded to lift it. His entire strategy after being shot is built around finding a way to kill the enemy with only his revolver, which requires the elaborate ruse with the cap to lure the enemy into the open at fifty yards.

    • The sniper takes a drink from a whiskey flask before and after the rooftop duel.

      Happened

      The sniper takes a short draught from his whiskey flask early in the story, while eating his sandwich. Later, after the killing and his emotional collapse, he empties the flask in a single draught — drinking recklessly under the influence of the spirit. The flask bookends the story's action.

    • The enemy sniper's body falls off the roof and lands in the street below.

      Happened

      O'Flaherty describes the death in vivid detail: the enemy sniper reels over the parapet, crumples forward, and 'the body turned over and over in space and hit the ground with a dull thud.' This is the body the Republican sniper crosses the street to examine.

    • The sniper successfully signals his company commander for assistance during the rooftop duel.

      Didn't happen

      The sniper never contacts his company commander during the battle. He handles the entire encounter — being spotted, wounded, devising a ruse, and making the killing shot — entirely alone. Only after the duel is over does he plan to descend and report to his commander.

    • A machine gun fires at the sniper as he crosses the street to examine the body.

      Happened

      When the sniper darts across the street, 'a machine gun tore up the ground around him with a hail of bullets, but he escaped. He threw himself face downwards beside the corpse.' The war has not stopped around him — his final act of crossing the street is itself a risk.

    • The sniper deduces that the enemy is his brother before he turns over the body.

      Didn't happen

      The sniper has no idea who the enemy is before the final moment. He only wonders vaguely whether they might have known each other before the war's split. The revelation — 'he looked into his brother's face' — is as shocking to the sniper as it is to the reader. O'Flaherty gives no warning.

    • The armoured car retreats across the bridge after its gunner is shot.

      Happened

      After the sniper shoots the man in the turret, the armoured car 'retired speedily over the bridge, with the machine gunner's head hanging lifeless over the turret.' The sniper eliminates this threat before turning his full attention to the enemy sniper still positioned across the street.

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20. 20

    Question 20. How would you best describe O'Flaherty's prose style in "The Sniper"?

    • Richly symbolic, with each object carrying elaborate layers of allegorical meaning throughout
    • Lyrical and poetic, with long descriptive passages that dwell on the beauty of the Irish landscape
    • Correct answer: Spare and journalistic, with short declarative sentences that report action without sentimentality
    • Stream of consciousness, following the sniper's unfiltered thoughts as action unfolds in real time

    O'Flaherty writes in a spare, journalistic style — short, declarative sentences that report action with clinical detachment. 'The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall.' There is no emotional commentary, no lingering over suffering. This restrained style makes the violence feel all the more stark and real, and it makes the sniper's post-kill emotional collapse even more powerful by contrast.

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21. 21

    Question 21. When O'Flaherty writes that machine guns and rifles broke the silence 'like dogs barking on lone farms,' what literary device is he using?

    • Personification — giving the guns human characteristics and emotions
    • Alliteration — repeating consonant sounds to create a musical effect
    • Metaphor — directly comparing the guns to dogs without using 'like' or 'as'
    • Correct answer: Simile — comparing the sounds of guns to dogs barking, using 'like'

    O'Flaherty uses a simile — a direct comparison using 'like' or 'as.' The guns 'broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms.' The simile is deliberately homely and rural, connecting the urban warfare of Dublin to the familiar sounds of the Irish countryside. It makes the war feel both disruptive and, paradoxically, as natural and intermittent as a dog's bark in the dark.

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22. 22

    Question 22. What does "Ruse" mean in this story?

    • Correct answer: A clever trick or stratagem intended to deceive an opponent
    • A temporary truce agreed between two opposing forces in the field
    • An honest public statement of one's real plans to an opponent
    • A military order or command given under conditions of extreme urgency

    A ruse is a clever deception or trick used to gain an advantage over an opponent. The sniper's ruse — faking his own death using his cap and rifle — is the tactical masterstroke of the story. It works precisely because it appeals to the enemy's natural assumption: a cap shot and a body falling silent means a dead man. The sniper exploits his enemy's certainty.

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23. 23

    Question 23. What does the description of the sniper's eyes as having 'the cold gleam of the fanatic' suggest about the effects of war and ideology?

    • War attracts people who are already fanatical by temperament, not people transformed by it
    • Correct answer: Ideological fanaticism can suppress a person's natural human sympathy and compassion
    • The sniper's coldness is an asset that protects him emotionally from the trauma of combat
    • O'Flaherty admires the sniper's discipline and uses the description as a compliment

    By pairing the 'student's face' with the 'fanatic's eyes,' O'Flaherty shows us that war and ideology can suppress or override natural human feeling. The sniper is clearly intelligent and capable of reflection — as his post-kill remorse demonstrates. But in the heat of combat, ideology has turned those eyes cold. The story suggests that fanaticism is learned and imposed by conflict, not an innate quality of the person — and it can be undone, as the sniper's revulsion and guilt after the killing show.

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24. 24

    Question 24. What does the brother's identity most powerfully symbolize in the context of the Irish Civil War?

    • The inescapability of fate for soldiers who choose to serve in any military conflict
    • The irony that skilled soldiers are often deployed against opponents of equal ability
    • Correct answer: The way civil war splits a nation so deeply that it destroys even family bonds and shared blood
    • The arbitrary and random nature of death in warfare, which makes no distinctions of rank or role

    The brother's identity is O'Flaherty's central symbol: the Irish Civil War did not just divide a country along political lines — it split families, forcing brothers with the same upbringing, the same blood, and the same homeland to become mortal enemies. The sniper's military victory over the enemy is simultaneously his worst personal defeat. The abstract political split between Republicans and Free Staters becomes, in the story's final image, devastatingly personal and human.

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25. 25

    Question 25. What makes the publication history of "The Sniper" historically significant?

    • It was O'Flaherty's final story, written in the year he died after decades of silence
    • It was initially banned by British censors for its depiction of anti-Treaty Republican fighters
    • It was published in Ireland's most prestigious literary journal during a period of national celebration
    • Correct answer: It was written and published while the Irish Civil War it depicts was still being fought

    "The Sniper" was published in The New Leader on January 12, 1923 — while the Irish Civil War was still being fought. The war did not end until May 1923. This means O'Flaherty wrote and published a work of anti-war fiction about a conflict that had not yet concluded, making it one of the most immediate literary responses to the Irish Civil War. It was also his first published short story.

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