Malta’s national anthem Lil din l-art ħelwa has today become part of the routine fixtures of Maltese nationhood, enshrined in the Constitution, accepted effortlessly by all shades of political opinion. The inspirational story of Dr George Borg Olivier’s dogged relentlessness to have the Innu Malti recognised and dignified, against equally obstinate colonialist resistance, was wholly unknown, until recently revealed by Prof. Joseph M. Pirotta in his 2016 book Nation, Pride and Dignity. Borg Olivier and the National Anthem, Malta.
Lord Grenfell, Governor of Malta, who banned the playing of the new national anthem.
But, as it happens, Lil din l-art ħelwa, words by the poet Dun Karm Psaila, music by Robert Samut, first sung in 1922, is only our second national anthem. The story of the first, almost totally overlooked and forgotten, was recently unearthed by Dr Albert Ganado in his article ‘When the Maltese national anthem was barred by closing the Royal Theatre’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, February 24, 2019). I believe I can add quite a few highlights to that narrative.