The first paragraph of the story provides some significant clues about the social context of the text and why the main character is acting as a sniper, awaiting the opportunity to shoot enemies from a Dublin, Ireland, rooftop. In the final line of this paragraph, the narrator states that “Republicans and Free Staters were waging civil war.” The ten-month Irish Civil War (1922–1923) took place following the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921). Based on the groups the narrator names, we can assume that the social context of the story is, in fact, the Irish Civil War.

We know that the main character is a Republican soldier from the narrator’s description of him. In the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Republican Army (or IRA) fought against the British, who occupied Ireland. With the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921, the War of Independence ended, and the IRA split into two groups: those who supported the Irish treaty with the British and those who did not.

Those anti-treaty IRA members, now called Irregulars, fought against the pro-treaty IRA members, now called the Free State Army, in the Irish Civil War. Those IRA members who were anti-treaty hoped to establish an Ireland which was totally outside of British control, while the Free-Staters were happy with the treaty and content to remain part of the UK. As a Republican sniper, or anti-treaty IRA “Irregular,” during the Irish Civil War, the main character is trying to kill any Free Staters he can.