Set during the early weeks of the Irish Civil War, during the Battle of Dublin, it is O'Flaherty's first published work of fiction.
It was published in a small London-based socialist weekly, The New Leader (12 January 1923)[1][2] while the war that it depicted was still ongoing.
The favorable notice that it generated helped to get other works by O'Flaherty published, and started his career.
A Republican sniper is sitting on a rooftop, eating a sandwich and drinking a bottle of whiskey.
Weakened and disgusted, the protagonist moves down to the street because he is curious to find out whom he had killed.