Summary of the Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty

Summary

The Sniper is a short story by Liam O'Floherty which describes the experiences of a Republican sniper during a civil war in Dublin, Ireland . The sniper is camping on roof near O'Connell Bridge with his rifle beside him, with minimal lighting from the moon he hungrily ate food after many hours of starvation. After his meal he decided to take the risk of lighting a cigarette even though the enemy would be able to see him due to the light produced . As soon as he lit the cigarette with a match a bullet whizzed past him, cursing he put out the light and rolled to the side grabbing his rifle and looking for the enemy sniper. Unfortunately the Enemy was undercover, a little while later an armoured enemy vehicle pulls up near the parapet where the Republican Sniper was hiding. A Woman approaches the vehicle, the sniper concludes that the woman is an enemy informer and takes out the woman and the enemy in the truck. However after he takes these shots the Enemy sniper shoots his shoulder but the sniper shows no pain even though the bullet is lodged in his bone instead he rips off a piece of his shirt using a knife and tends to his wounds by pouring liquid Iodine onto it. Since he is currently unable to operate a rifle he makes a plan to trick the Enemy sniper in order for the Republican Sniper to kill him.  He puts his con the tip of the rifle and lifts his rifle making it seem like his head is exposed, the Enemy bites the bait and shoots the cap. Following that, the Republican Sniper drops his gun and cap  over the ledge and onto the street to make it look as if the enemy killed him. Triumphant the enemy stands up proud of his kill. but his victory doesn't last long because the republican Sniper now has a clear shot and using his hand held revolver he shoots the enemy even though he's about 40 meters away. Then the Republican sniper leaves the roof and decides to go to his commanding officer to report. But before he leaves the sniper decides to look at the Enemy sniper who fell off the roof ,because he was a very good sniper. when he got closer to the body he turned it over and looked in to his brothers face.

Author's View on War

The Author has a negative view on war which can be seen in his short story, he describes the hardships snipers and soldiers go through. They have to overcome every emotion including pain to be the best soldier without any remorse for who they kill. Soldiers have to follow orders no matter what they are, even though the soldiers don't hate the enemy soldiers they just follow orders which can be ironically seen in the story, the Republican Sniper shoots his brother who was transferred to the enemy army when the army split in half. War hurts our loved ones and somebody else loved ones, there are no winners in war.

ISU Blog #2 Slam Poetry based on Social Issue

Based on the social issue in my book I have written this spoken word poem, it describes how the lone survivors of the Apocalypse feel.

No where to go
no one to trust
what do I do
I don't want to but I must
keep walking
I hear them talking
telling me to do things id never do
I am loosing the war going on in my brain
but I cant give up, not just yet
cant let the pain
 take over who I am
My family died for me
i still gotta job to do
even if I don't know what it is
these people need me
i will not be like the baggers
who just care about murder
they have Guns and all I have is daggers
will it stop me ? no it will take me further

ISU Blog #1 Social issue: Corruption

The book i have chosen is called Dark inside by Jeyn Roberts, it is the story of 4 young people Mason, Aries, Clementine and Michael all trying to survive in a world that was destroyed. Destroyed by what you might ask, it was Humans the darkness that was building up in the hearts of humans snapped and the darkness took over which corrupted us. In the  book it is described as an ancient evil that was set free causing a series of Earthquakes and then taking over those with enough hate in them.Those possessed by this darkness were very dangerous, but unlike zombies or any other creatures in apocalyptic movies, these Baggers they called them were armed intelligent humans who would hunt the uncorrupted ones down and kill them.  Even those who were pure and not corrupted

were surrounded by death everywhere and started hearing voices in their heads, voices that would tell them to do horrific things, Black veins in the eyes are the only indicators of possession and those with  strong enough hate and mind could even bypass that, so who can you trust ? Nobody.
At the beginning,using perspective changes the book describes the situation every single one of these Teens were in before the apocalypse and then it describes the events leading up to the downfall of civilization. Most of them join other survivors and head north where its rumoured to be safe, Clementine however travels north on a Quest to find her brother Heath who also travelled north in hope of a safe place to stay. Eventually all 4 of them including other group members who joined on the way, coincidentally meet during a huge attack and they all fight together. The Book is left on a cliff hanger without a real solution to the Apocalypses, However there was a solution to the Social issue  shown in the book, it was Trust and Love,  Even though the groups had to go through so much in the end the trust they had amongst each other was what helped them prevail. They trusted each other even when they should not have.