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• The following version of this book was used to create this Lesson Plan: O'Flaherty, Liam. Liam O'Flaherty: the Collected Stories, Volume 1. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2016. E-Book.

• The story opens at June evening in Dublin. It is the early days of the Irish Civil War, between the Republicans and the Free Staters, and heavy guns can be heard from several directions.

• The protagonist, a Republican sniper, is in position on a rooftop near McConnell Bridge.

• He is a young man, but his eye have "the cold gleam of the fanatic" (96).

• He is characterized by a deep thoughtful quality that the narrator suggests shows his familiarity with death.

• He is eating a sandwich and drinking whiskey, his first meal of the day. Earlier, he had been too excited to eat anything.

• Although he knows that there are enemy eyes watching for him, he decides to risk a post-meal cigarette...

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