In retrospect, this book began as a conversation about Northern Ireland more than a decade ago. Like most first conversations on Northern Ireland it was a communication of political position rather than a serious discussion, still less a search for deeper understanding. That concern came later, but slowly. As time went on we found ourselves paying increasingly close attention to political events. First one, then the other, started reading the literature and began to write on the conflict. This led to a decision to spend a sabbatical year in Belfast in 1987–8 and while there to interview people about their perceptions of the conflict. In the summer of 1989 we responded to an invitation to write an article on Northern Ireland by offering (though that was not our original intention) a tentative analysis of the causes of the conflict.

On finishing the article, we decided that its argument merited expansion into a short book, to be written quickly and as a detour from other intellectual concerns. As the writing began, we found ourselves attempting a comprehensive analysis of the conflict. It proved a much larger and longer undertaking than we imagined, but we persevered, writing and rewriting the book in Cork, Dublin and Strasbourg during another sabbatical. Throughout this period the political situation was changing, superficially at least, with successive rounds of (failed) interparty talks, continuing violence and death, then revelation of secret talks, the launching of a peace process and the ceasefires. We tested our interpretation against each new turn of events and modified it accordingly.

No study, still less one on Northern Ireland, is free of the politics and values of its authors.