<human>:  Why did the British government allow the IRA to be re-established in the UK?
<bot>: The IRA was re-established in the UK because the British government wanted to avoid a civil war. The IRA wanted to establish a separate country called the Irish Republic in the north of Ireland. The IRA was very successful at this, and they took control of most of the north of Ireland by the early 1990s. The British government wanted to avoid a civil war because they were afraid that the violence in Northern Ireland would spill over into the rest of the UK.