Name:Date: "The Sniper" by Liam O’Flaherty In 1919, the newly formed Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched guerilla warfare during the Irish War of Independence to liberate Ireland from the British. Unable to contain the rebels, London agreed in the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty to create an Irish Free State. However, the agreement would recognize the Free State only as a territory in the British Commonwealth of Nations. Moreover, it would permit six counties in Northern Ireland to withdraw from the Free State, allow the British to maintain ports in the south, and require the Free State to pay part of the debt Britain accumulated in waging the war. Consequently, not all Irishmen accepted the agreement, the terms of which became effective in 1922. The six northern counties broke away from the Free State, as expected. Once-united Irish fighters were now split into two factions – disgruntled IRA members and supporters of the Free State – and fought a civil war. The author of "T