In July 1972, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw, granted Special Category Status to all prisoners convicted of scheduled terrorist crimes. This had been one of the conditions set by the Provisional IRA when they negotiated a meeting with the British Government to discuss a truce, another being the release of Gerry Adams from internment [1]. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is the British cabinet minister who has responsibility for the government of Northern Ireland. ... William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, KT, CH, MC, PC, DL (June 28, 1918 - July 1, 1999), commonly known as Willie Whitelaw, was a British Conservative politician. ... This article is becoming very long. ... 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 United Kingdom is a unitary state and a democratic constitutional monarchy. ... Gerry Adams MP, MLA, (Irish: Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish Republican politician and abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for West Belfast. ...

Special category or political status was effectively prisoner of war status providing them with some of the ‘privileges’ of POWs such as those specified in the Geneva Convention. This meant prisoners did not have to wear prison uniforms or do prison work, were housed within their paramilitary factions and they were allowed extra visits and food parcels. Geneva Convention definition A prisoner of war (POW) is a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine who is imprisoned by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. ... The Geneva Conventions consist of treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland that set the standards for international law for humanitarian concerns. ... A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ...

In 1974, continuing confrontation culminated in the burning of the Maze Compound Prison (Long Kesh) and damage to other establishments.

In January 1975 the Gardiner Committee, which looked at how the British Government should deal with terrorism in Northern Ireland in the 'context of civil liberties and human rights', recommended the ending of special category status [2]. It argued that special category status undermined the role of the prison authorities in maintaining discipline. The republican response to this was violent and 6 prison staff were murdered in the period 1976-77 [3].

The Government accepted the recommendation and on the 1st March 1976, the new Labour Secretary of State Merlyn Rees announced the phasing out of special category status. Anyone convicted of a Scheduled terrorist related offence after March 1976 would be treated like an ordinary criminal and would have to wear a prison uniform, do prison work and would serve their sentence in the new Maze prison in what became known as the H-Blocks. In several countries, Secretary of State is a senior government position. ... Merlyn Rees, later Baron Merlyn-Rees of Cilfynydd, PC (18 December 1920 - 5 January 2006) was a British Labour party Member of Parliament from 1963 until 1992. ... 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. ...

By the autumn of 1976, the new cellular prison accommodation recommended by Gardiner was ready to receive its first prisoners. In the week that Roy Mason took over from Merlyn Rees as Secretary of State, Kieran Nugent, the first prisoner sentenced under the new policy, arrived at the Maze Prison and was ordered to wear a prison uniform. Roy Mason (born April 18, 1924) is a British politician and former Cabinet minister. ...

Nugent refused the uniform saying he was not a criminal but a political prisoner. He was locked in his cell where he wrapped himself in the blanket that was on the bed rather than remain naked. The blanket protest was born and soon other prisoners followed his example. By 1978 nearly 300 republican prisoners were refusing to wear prison uniforms.

The protest culminated in the 1981 Hunger Strike when ten republican prisoners starved themselves to death.-1...