Liam O'Flaherty's story of a rooftop duel in a divided Dublin — and the face waiting at the end of it.
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Ten words unlock the story. Work through the four short activities — say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Three words from the story: ruse · silhouette · remorse. Match each definition to the right word — out loud, then reveal.
Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.
The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay wrapped in darkness except for the pale moonlight that shone over the streets and the dark waters of the River Liffey. Around the besieged Four Courts, heavy guns roared. Here and there through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night. Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war — Irishman against Irishman.
On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching. Beside him were his rifle and a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic — the eyes of a man used to looking at death. He had eaten nothing since morning; he had been too excited to eat. He finished a sandwich, took a short drink of whiskey from his flask, and then, deciding to risk it, struck a match and lit a cigarette. The brief flash of the match had hardly died before a bullet flattened itself against the parapet beside his head.
He put out the cigarette at once and swore softly. Somewhere on the opposite rooftop, another sniper was waiting for him. Then an armoured car came rumbling across the bridge and stopped fifty metres up the street. An old woman appeared below, her head covered by a tattered shawl. She began talking to the soldier in the turret of the car — and she pointed up, towards the sniper's roof. An informer.
1. What war is being fought, and who is fighting whom?
2. What small mistake almost costs the sniper his life in this part?
1. The Irish Civil War — Republicans against Free Staters. As the story puts it: Irishman against Irishman, in the same city.
2. He risks lighting a cigarette. The flash of the match shows the enemy sniper exactly where he is, and a bullet strikes the parapet beside his head.
The turret of the armoured car opened, and a soldier's head looked out. The sniper fired: the head fell heavily against the side of the car. As the old woman turned to run, he fired again, and she dropped by the kerb. Then, from the opposite rooftop, came the crack of a rifle — and the sniper felt a violent pain tear through his right forearm. He dropped his rifle with a curse. The wound was bleeding badly; his arm was useless. Under fire, gritting his teeth, he tore open his sleeve, poured iodine over the torn flesh, and bandaged the arm with his field dressing.
He could not escape across the roofs with a wounded arm, and when morning came he would be trapped. He had to kill his enemy — but he could no longer lift his rifle. He had only a revolver, useless at that distance. Then a plan, a ruse, came to him. He put his cap on the muzzle of the rifle and slowly raised it above the parapet. Immediately there was a crack, and a bullet passed through the centre of the cap. The sniper tilted the rifle forward, let the cap fall to the street, then dropped his left hand limply over the edge of the roof and let the rifle drop after it. Finally he slumped down and lay still, holding the revolver against his chest.
The ruse succeeded. On the opposite roof, the enemy sniper, seeing the rifle and the cap fall, believed that he had killed his man. He stood up from behind his cover and looked across, a clear silhouette against the western sky. The Republican sniper raised his revolver, steadied it on the parapet, took a long, careful aim through the darkness, and fired. His enemy staggered, swayed on the edge of the roof — and fell. The body turned over and over in the air before it hit the ground with a dull thud. Then it lay still.
1. Why can't the sniper simply shoot back or escape after he is wounded?
2. Explain the ruse, step by step. Why does the enemy stand up?
1. His right forearm is shattered, so he cannot lift or aim his rifle; his revolver is useless at that range; and crossing the open roofs by daylight with a wounded arm would be certain death.
2. He puts his cap on the rifle's muzzle and raises it; the enemy shoots through it. He drops the cap, then his hand, then the rifle itself, and lies still — so it looks exactly like a kill. Believing the duel is over, the enemy stands up in the open, and the sniper shoots him with the revolver.
The lust of battle died in him. He began to shiver. Looking at the shattered body of his enemy, he was bitten by remorse. The sweat stood out on his forehead. Wounded and thirsty, cursing the war, cursing himself, cursing everybody, he took the whiskey flask from his pocket and emptied it in one draught. He felt reckless under its influence. He decided to leave the roof and report to his company commander.
In the street below, everything was still. But the sniper felt a strange curiosity to know who the enemy sniper had been. He had been a good shot, whoever he was — perhaps he had known him before the war, before the army split in two. He decided to risk going over to look at him. Machine-gun fire tore up the ground around him as he darted across the open street, but he reached the fallen body and threw himself down beside it, safe now in the shadow.
Then the sniper turned over the dead body — and looked into his brother's face.
1. How does the sniper feel immediately after winning the duel — and what does he do about it?
2. Why does he cross the dangerous open street?
1. The excitement of battle collapses into shivering remorse — he curses the war, himself, everybody, and drinks the whole flask of whiskey to steady himself.
2. Curiosity: the enemy was a good shot, and the sniper wonders if he knew him from before the army split. He risks machine-gun fire to see the man's face — and finds his brother.
This is a story about watching and listening: a man survives by what he sees move and what he hears cracking in the dark. English has a special pattern for these verbs of perception — and a choice of two forms that changes the meaning.
Fill each gap with the verb in brackets — bare infinitive or -ing — to match the meaning in italics.
1. From the parapet he watched the armoured car (rumble) slowly across the bridge. (in progress, continuing)
2. He saw the old woman (point) up at his rooftop — one quick gesture. (complete action)
3. All night the city heard the heavy guns (roar) around the Four Courts. (continuing sound)
1. rumbling (he watches it in progress — -ing)
2. point (one complete gesture, seen start to finish — bare infinitive)
3. roaring (a sound continuing through the night — -ing)
Put the words in order and choose the correct form of the verb in brackets. Say the full sentence aloud, then write the missing verb form.
1. He felt a violent pain (tear) through his arm — sudden and complete.
2. Lying still behind the parapet, he could hear his own heart (thump) against the roof.
3. The enemy saw the rifle (fall) to the street below — and believed his man was dead.
1. tear (one sudden, complete sensation — bare infinitive)
2. thumping (continuing sensation — -ing)
3. fall (a complete action, seen from start to finish — that is exactly why the ruse works)
Fill each gap with the correct form of the verb in brackets. Read the whole paragraph aloud when you finish.
The sniper watched the soldier's head (appear) out of the turret, and fired. Moments later he felt something (burn) through his forearm and knew he was hit. He heard bullets (whistle) over the roof as he bandaged the wound. When the enemy saw the cap and rifle (drop) into the street, he stood up — and the sniper watched him (sway) on the roof's edge before he fell.
appear · burning · whistling · drop · swaying
Notice: complete single actions (appear, drop) take the bare infinitive; continuing actions and sensations (burning, whistling, swaying) take -ing.
Hold on to this pattern — in the Speak tab you'll retell the duel, and every "he saw… / he heard… / he felt…" will need the right form.
O'Flaherty fought in the First World War and lived through the Irish Civil War; he published this story in 1923, while that war was still being fought. It is barely three pages long, and it never tells you how to feel — which is exactly why it has never gone out of print.
This is the heart of the lesson — do all of it out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than racing through it.
Tell the story of The Sniper in your own words, as if to someone who has never heard it. Move through the arc: the rooftop at twilight and the fatal cigarette → the armoured car, the informer, the wound → the ruse with the cap and rifle → the shot, the fall, the remorse → the face in the street.
As you tell it, use at least three verbs of perception with the correct form (saw him stand up, heard the guns roaring, felt the pain tear through his arm) and work in at least five key words (parapet, twilight, informer, ruse, silhouette, remorse, turret, muzzle, flash, wound).
The sniper is brave, skilful — and, by the end, shaking with remorse. Build an argument: does war reveal what people really are, or does it turn them into someone else entirely? Use the sniper as your first piece of evidence, then bring in one other example from history, film or literature.
Civil war is the story's extreme case — but any group can split into two sides that stop seeing each other as people. Talk about a division you find interesting and what it would take to heal it.
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: