When I came back to Dublin, I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.

A sentence passed while the accused is absent receives an answer extending that same condition to the execution. The reply takes the procedure’s logic literally until the punishment becomes impossible to carry out. Its defiance comes through a neat verbal extension, rather than a direct argument about innocence.

Context reviewed 28 September 2026