The village of Claddagh was a unique collection of thatched cottages arranged in a very random fashion, a place apart, occupied by a few thousand souls. They had their own customs, spoke mainly in Irish, intermarried, elected their own king and had a code of laws unique to the village. Virtually the entire male population was involved in fishing, but when they landed their catch, the women took over and they were the ones who went out and sold the product.
Michael Galea takes a look at life in Malta in 1892, as narrated by German teachers in a book published almost 130 years ago.
Front piece of Julius Rodenberg’s book Eine (Fruehlingsfahrt nach Malta mit Ausfluegen in Sicilien), published in Berlin in 1893.
Julius Rodenberg, together with Justine and Alice Rodenberg, set forth on a trip to Malta in the late 1890s. They sailed with the Italian steam ship Asia (Capt. G. B. Ruffo) from Genoa.
Julius described the highlights of that journey in a book entitled Eine Fruehlingsfahrt nach Malta mit Ausfluegen in Sicilien (A trip to Malta in spring with excursions in Sicily), which was published in Berlin in 1893.