When Gerald Strickland makes his way to the Pitkali fruit and vegetable market – to source natural, local ingredients for his artisan jams and marmalades – he is often greeted by farmers who announce: “
Ġie tal-ġamm” (the jam man has arrived).
“I’ve become known as
tal-ġamm amongst farmers. Who would have ever thought? This has been a wonderful thing. I’ve engaged backwards into the food chain with the people who grow our food. I ended up with fantastic experiences with farmers,” says Gerald.
This passion has its roots way back. “I was always interested in food preservation. Having spent five years in the British Army – between the ages of 18 and 23 – I was often out in the open air for days on end and was interested in how food could be preserved over time,” recalls Gerald.
It’s been over a year since the coronavirus pandemic struck and, after months of escalating fears of contracting the virus, many are experiencing a new fo
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 T
Scar tissue: The aftermath of the interdett – Part Five
Fifth and final part of a MaltaToday series on the January 1961 Church Interdett, first published in MaltaToday in 2005
17 April 2021, 5:37pm
by Michaela Muscat
“THE IMPOSITION of the interdett and the mortal sin in the sixties left a traumatic effect on the life of all of those who experienced it. A great pain that is still felt today,” says Wenzu Mintoff, the Labour politician and Dom Mintoff’s nephew.
He believes that at least another two generations have to pass before the great hurts are not felt anymore. “To show how a hurt like this lasts for long one only has to read the biography of Mabel Strickland who until her death could not find reassurance on whether her father Lord Gerald Strickland, who had also been affected by the imposition of the mortal sin in the 30s with Boffa’s labourites, had been ex-communicated from the church and had managed to save his soul.”