I had done well in gaol, if one can do well there. I was leaving Robben Island in one piece, unbroken in spirit and flesh. Not only could I boast a PG (Prison Graduate), I could boast three academic degrees obtained through correspondence with the University of South Africa. During my 15 years, I had served our prison community through a variety of committees.

I also served in all the underground structures of the ANC, from the committee responsible for drawing the organisation's study programme to the highest committee entrusted with day-to-day administration and organisational discipline in the section. I had lived a full life in a ‘basement’ devoid of natural life.

The prison discipline [of Irish political prisoners] of corporeal debasement had led to the redemptive immersion into the Gaelic language and Irish cultural history; domination had been resisted by new forms of sociation, communalism, and separatism. All these components were identified by the Blanketmen (by Bobby Sands in particular) as central to nation building beyond the prison … Their resistance had provided the elementary forms for sociocultural emancipation beyond the prison.