(There is some hope that the Troubles in the North may be
	coming to an end and conflict will be of the more usual
	political kind, not involving the kind of violence that
	has made Northern Ireland infamous for three decades.
	Nevertheless, this answer refers to the Troubles.)

	This is a difficult question and one that is impossible to
	answer without offending some people.  There are two easy
	answers, each favoured by one side: because of the border;
	because of the IRA.  Neither is satisfactory, because both just
	raise more difficult questions: why do the border and the IRA
	exist today?  There is an attempt to answer the first in the
	History section of the FAQ.

	This is not a war between the Irish and the British: it is not
	a private war between the IRA and the British army; nor is it
	a war between catholics and protestants.  It is a struggle over
	the political future of Northern Ireland, one where some people
	have resorted to violence (as well as the IRA there are various
	loyalist groups who have a U for Ulster at the start of their
	acronyms).  An overwhelming proportion of nationalists and
	unionists reject violence (though they are usually most strident
	in their rejection when this violence is committed by the "other"
	side).

	To explain the conflict you must explain the IRA.  It has little
	popular support in Ireland (but considerable support in parts
	of Belfast, Armagh and Derry).	It is (despite claims to the
	contrary) a deeply political organisation with a well-developed
	ideology that justifies continued killing.  This is the ideology
	of British oppression.	Perhaps the most significant icon is
	the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry when British paratroopers
	shot dead unarmed protesters.  It is events such as these that
	recruit members, not the low-level harassment of republicans or
	the border itself (both existed long before the Provisional IRA).

	A FAQ answer is not a real answer to the question: you need to
	read a book (preferably several).  "The Troubles" by Tim Pat
	Coogan (Random House, London 1995 ISBN 0 09 179146 4) might be a
	start.  (He also wrote a history of the IRA called, surprisingly
	"The IRA: A History".)   "The Edge of the Union" by Steve Bruce
	(ISBN 0-19-827976-0 ) takes a different point of view of the
	same period.