I was only a working-class boy from a Nationalist ghetto. But it is repression that creates the revolutionary spirit of freedom.
We wish to be treated 'not as ordinary prisoners,' for we are not criminals. We admit no crime - unless, that is, the love of one's people and country is a crime.
I am dying not just to attempt to end the barbarity of H-blocks or to gain the rightful recognition of political prisoners, but primarily because what is lost here is lost for the Republic.
Well, I have gotten by twenty-seven years, so that is something. I may die, but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onward to the Republic and liberation of our people.
I was a skeleton compared to what I used to be, but it didn't matter. Nothing really mattered except remaining unbroken.
They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart.
