The jeering Buddhist priests
One of the central themes in this essay is Orwell's fear of ridicule. Nothing undermines his authority more than the constant laughter, snickering and insults that get flung at him as a police officer for the British Empire. In the opening paragraph he states that of all the people who mock him, "the young Buddhist priests were the worst of all." The irony here is that the most pious of the society are the ones who ridicule him the most.
The irony of Orwell's allegiance
Orwell states openly that he is on the side of the oppressed Burmese people and secretly despises the British Empire. The irony is plain: as a police officer for the Empire, he represents it and must uphold its authority.
The irony of Orwell's mixed emotions
Orwell states: “With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts" (31). The conflicted feeling here reveals profound irony. His description of the British Raj is as the ultimate oppressor, keeping its prostrate subjects pinned down eternally. While he openly despises and criticizes this "tyranny," he simultaneously feels the urge to violently, personally partake in it.
