The blanket protest was part of a dispute involving Provisional IRA and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners held in the Maze prison ("Long Kesh") in Northern Ireland. The republican prisoner's status as political prisoners had begun to be phased out in 1975. Among other things, this meant that they would now be required to wear prison uniforms like ordinary convicts. The men refused to accept that they were ordinary criminals and refused to wear the prison uniform. Instead, they modified prison blankets and wore them instead. The blanket protest was combined with the dirty protest. Both protests were eventually abandoned after the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. In the mid 1980s, the British allowed all paramilitary prisoners to wear their own clothes. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) is a paramilitary group which aimed, through the use of violence, to achieve three goals: (i) British withdrawal from Ireland, (ii) the political unification of Ireland through the merger of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland , and (iii) the creation of an all... The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is an Irish republican paramilitary organization which was formed on December 8, 1974. ... Her Majestys Prison (HMP) Maze (known colloqually as The Maze) is a disused prison sited at the former RAF station at Long Kesh (it is still called Long Kesh by many Irish Republicans) near Lisburn, nine miles outside Belfast, in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. ... Dieu et mon droit (Royal motto) (French for God and my right)3 Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685... Irish Republicanism is the nationalist belief that all of Ireland should be a united independent republic. ... A political prisoner is anyone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, because their ideas or image are deemed by a government to either challenge or threaten the authority of the state. ... -1... A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ...