What is the tone of the story, "The Sniper"?

Consider this definition of the literary term tone:

tone: suggests an attitude toward the subject which is communicated by the words the author chooses. Part of the range of tone includes playful, somber, serious, casual, formal, ironic. Important because it designates the mood and effect of a work.

Now consider these quotes from the story:

"darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds"

"machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night, spasmodically, like dogs barking on lone farms."

"The sniper could hear the dull panting of the motor"

"her head covered by a tattered shawl."

"There was no pain--just a deadened sensation"

Based on these descriptions of darkness and distressed situations (tattered, panting, deadened), the tone is at best pessimisstic, at worst hopeless.  This is important to O'Flaherty's theme, which is to illustrate the horrors of the Irish civil conflicts.  For years, the Irish people had been fighting each other over the issue of remaining British citizens are having a free state.  The fight had become - and would remain until recently - a terrorist civil war.  He wanted to show the hopelessness of the terrorist attacks at solving any of the issues and the horrific consequences of those attacks.