"The Sniper" was O'Flaherty's first published short story, and as it would turn out, was different from the main body of his short fiction. O'Flaherty became most known for his stories about nature, animals, and Irish peasants, not for the stories he wrote about urban Ireland. Of his numerous stories, only four stories deal with the Irish civil war, while another handful are set in Irish cities. However, according to James M. Calahan, author of Liam O'Flaherty: A Study of the Short Fiction, O'Flaherty's political stories cannot be separated from the others, for "politics permeate all of his works." In a story like "The Sniper," politics are simply more obvious.

The Sniper: Four Courts Building in Dublin, Ireland, seen here in 1922, is the location of the standoff described in the "The Sniper" [graphic graphicname="TIF00167385" orient="portrait" size="A"]

Generally, O'Flaherty's urban stories present a bleak...