Manwel Dimech

Manwel Dimech

Manwel Dimech in 1911
Born (1860-12-25)25 December 1860
Valletta, Malta
Died 17 April 1921(1921-04-17) (aged 60)
Victoria College, Alexandria, Egypt.
Resting place Buried in an unmarked grave within the grounds of Victoria College, Alexandria, Egypt
Monuments Castille Place, Valletta, by Anton Agius, inaugurated on May 1, 1976.
Occupation Social reformer, philosopher, journalist, author and poet
Years active 1898-1914
Organization Ix-Xirka tal-Imdawlin (Society of the Illumined)
Known for Social reform
Notable work Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin, Ivan u Prascovia, Aphorisms
Spouse(s) Virginia neé Agius (1872-1939); married: Stella Maris, Sliema, October 2, 1900
Children

Manuel (1902-1902)
Attilio (1903-1918)
Ulissis (1904-1906)
Sylvia (1906-1993)
Evelyn (1908-1996)

Ulissis (1912-1913)
Parent(s) Carmelo Dimech (1836-1874) x Evangelista neé Zammit (1831-1900); married: St Paul Shipwreck, Valletta, October 2, 1855
Signature

Manuel Dimech (25 December 1860, Valletta – 17 April 1921, Alexandria, Egypt) was the pre-eminent social reformer in pre-independence Malta, a philosopher, a journalist, and a writer of novels and poetry.

Born and brought up in extreme poverty and illiteracy, Dimech returned time and time again to the prisons, mostly on theft charges. At seventeen years of age he even committed murder. In the prisons, however, he studied hard and became skilful in letters and various arts. When finally set in liberty, he engaged himself in an energetic and enterprising public life by teaching and publishing. He aimed at an overall transformation of society in which the poor and abject would be given a rightful place as citizens of a free republic. Having incurred the wrath of the dominant political forces and the privileged classes, Dimech was permanently exiled from the island and was buried in Egypt in an unmarked grave.

Biography

The main literary source for Dimech’s biography is Mark Montebello’s extensive work Dimech, published in 2004 (PEG, Malta; vol. 1 of the 2nd edition published in 2013 by Miller Distributors, Malta). Though it is in Maltese, a fully documented biography in English is available as The Amazing Story of Manuel Dimech (Dom Communications, Malta 2014) and in Aphorisms: Wisdom of a Philosopher in Exile (SKS, Malta 2012).

The place where Manuel Dimech was born on 25 December 1860 in St. John's Street, Valletta, Malta.

Birth and formation

Manuel Dimech was born on Christmas Day (December 25), 1860, at St John Street, Valletta, Malta, and baptised at the church of St Paul Shipwreck, Valletta.[1] His family was poor and lived in a single room that was part of a common tenement house with over sixty people.[2] His ancestors on his father’s side were genuine artistic sculptors, though up till Dimech’s birth his family had fallen on difficult times. During his childhood, Dimech’s family moved residence twice, leaving Valletta for Qormi (today Santa Venera),[3] and then moving to Msida.[4] His father tried hard to make ends meet, but his weak health prevented any success in this endeavour. He died at the young age of only 37, leaving his widow to care for ten young children.[5]

Prison experience

Just a fortnight after his father’s death the 13-year-old Dimech committed his first recorded crime of petty theft.[6] He was a street urchin with no education, guidance or direction. For his first crime he was sent two days in a lockup.[7] This experience did not stop him from delving deeper into a life of crime. Subsequently, he was to be sent nine more times to prison, sometimes for very serious crimes.[8] Mostly it was for theft or burglary, but in 1878, when he was 17 years old, he committed involuntary murder, and was imprisoned for more than twelve years.[9] In 1890, then, he was found guilty of forging counterfeit money (though he only traded it), and was imprisoned for a further seven years.[10] He was definitely released from prison in 1897 at the age of 36.[11] In all he had spent some twenty years of incarceration.

Education

While in prison Dimech began to learn how to read and write.[12] This was in 1877, when he was 17 years old. With all the time of the world on his hands he quickly became an avid reader, absorbing all kinds of stuff: literature, grammar, politics, history, philosophy, religion, and more.[13] He discovered he had a special penchant for languages, and in prison he learnt the ins and outs of Maltese, English, French and Italian to perfection. Later he would make a living teaching these languages. He had a good brain and a fruitful mind. His keen interest in politics was not committed to petty squabbles or parochial issues, but burrowed deep into the structural causes of poverty and oppression. All of this would serve him well in the public sphere.[14]

Terror in prison

In prison Dimech had another kind of formation. During his last stint in prison between 1890 and 1897,[15] a certain Marquis Giorgio Barbaro was appointed Commissioner of Prison. This man was a psychopath who made the life of prisoners, vulnerable and defenceless as they were, a hell on earth. He tortured, murdered, persecuted and tormented prisoners ceaselessly.[16] He also perjured his way into sending at least two prisoners to the gallows for crimes they had not committed.[17] Dimech saw all this and lived through it with growing agony.[18] The experience, together with the reading he was doing, moulded him into a daring, powerful and intrepid personality.

Public figure

Once out of prison in 1897,[19] Dimech embarked on an outstanding public career that brought him fame, though not immediate success. From the start of 1898 he issued a weekly in Maltese that was to serve him as his mouthpiece for many years to come. He called it Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin (The Flag of the Maltese; pronounced ilbaandeera taal maaltin).[20] Through it he explored, albeit with the language and prose of the times, the structures of oppression in a country that had been a colony of Britain since 1800, and in the clutches of the Catholic Church since time immemorial. Furthermore, Dimech proposed the way forward. He advocated the education of the masses, and audaciously specified how Malta could one day be an economically self-sufficient independent republic.

Philosophy

Dimech adhered to a philosophy that he called ‘of action’, a position very close, though directly unrelated, to the contemporaneous Pragmatism of America. He came at this position through his acquaintance with the philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and other British Empiricists and philosophers of Utilitarianism. He claimed that actions can be considered right or wrong, and value judgments can be rightly gauged, according to whether they perform well when applied to practice. Actions, he maintained, proceed from the power that knowledge possesses from itself. Furthermore, actions are aimed at acquiring happiness, first, for the individual, and, simultaneously, for the whole community of individuals.[21]

First issue of Dimech's weekly Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin (The Flag of the Maltese) - 8 January 1898

Publications

During his lifetime Dimech issued various publications. The 462 editions of Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin are perhaps the foremost. But others are also interesting. Amongst these one can find other newspapers in foreign languages (of short duration), two novels, grammar books (in Italian, English, French, and Maltese), and pamphlets. Unfortunately, books of poetry have not survived. Dimech’s main objective with these publications was to form a political class from amongst the people, especially young men and women who had not the possibility of acquiring an education otherwise. Dimech was enamored of the Maltese language, and saw it as an efficacious tool of emancipation.

Foreign experience

Dimech had travelled to Tunis in 1890 for expediency reasons.[22] However, in 1903 he visited Montenegro (for almost three weeks)[23] to study at close range the social and political situation there. He enhanced this experience by travelling twice to the north of Italy (especially Genoa, Milan and Turin), where, in all, he spent almost four years.[24] There Dimech became particularly acquainted to workers’ movements and the trade unions. He was also very interested in the state-church relationship that prevailed in Italy during that fascinating time. Understandably, he came back to Malta fired up and all ready to bring about the social changes he had been mulling over for many years.

Main political programme

It is indisputable that Dimech wanted, and worked for, an overhaul of the social system. His main aim was to pull the carpet from under the structures of oppression, whether they were maintained by the British colonial government, the Catholic Church, the privileged class, the landed gentry, or whoever. His strategy was to begin with the political education of a new grass-root group of people, and subsequently permeate the illiterate, underprivileged and destitute masses. His ultimate aims were to make Malta an industrialised country that could be economically self-reliant and, eventually, be worthy of independence.

Definitely back to Malta from Italy in 1911, Dimech founded what he called Ix-Xirka ta' l-Imdawlin (The League of the Enlightened; pronounced ishirka taal imdaaulin).[25] This was a sort of union in the modern understanding of the word, in the sense that it was a social club, an organisation militating for workers’ rights, a school of adult education, and a political party all in one. Through this league Dimech hoped to have a say, and transformative influence, in the political, and then the social, and maybe also the religious, fields. Young idealists and people craving for change flocked to him, and not only from the lower class but also from the middle and higher classes. Dimech’s political “revolution” had begun.

Excommunicated

But immediately Dimech was held in his tracks. The then mighty Catholic Church pounced on him, and first condemned Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin and Ix-Xirka ta' l-Imdawlin,[26] and shortly afterward excommunicated Dimech himself.[27] Though this was an overwhelmingly devastating blow in all respects in Malta of the 1910s, Dimech was undaunted. He fought back with the little freedom of movement and action that was left to him, and stalwartly stood his ground. For a whole year, between 1911 and 1912, he and his family were systematically and pitilessly persecuted by the Church,[28] but nothing could break his back. Then, obliquely admitting defeat, the Church called a truce.[29] Dimech had won against all odds, and immediately re-established his former organization with the name Ix-Xirka tal-Maltin (The League of the Maltese; pronounced ishirka tal maltin).

Considered dangerous

But the Catholic Church was not the only institution disgruntled with Dimech. The British colonial government was unhappy with his widespread and growing influence amongst the workers at the Royal shipyards. Indeed, the great majority of Dimech’s foot soldiers came from there, and this threatened to precariously disrupt the use of Malta as one of His Majesty’s major Mediterranean naval base. Slowly but surely, and perhaps not without a push or two from the authorities of the Catholic Church, the powers to be began to close upon this little man who was considered dangerous enough to be destroyed.

Italian S.S. Stura on which Dimech was exiled

Deportation and imprisonment

Just over a year after Dimech re-launched his Xirka tal-Maltin, he was arrested.[30] World War I had just begun, and Malta’s British governor accepted the accusation that Dimech was a spy of Germany (then at war with Britain), and surreptitiously deported him to the island to Sicily, in Italy (as yet a neutral country in the war).[31] There he was shortly arrested again,[32] and asked to leave to a country, save Malta, of his own choice. Dimech chose Egypt, then a British protectorate.[33] Again, shortly afterwards, he was arrested once more, this time for good.[34] For the remaining days of his life, for seven long and miserable years, Dimech lived in prisons or concentration camps either at Alexandria or Cairo.

Exile

At some unspecified time the British began to consider Dimech as a “prisoner of war”.[35] However, when World War I came to an end in 1918, he was not released. Technically and actually, Dimech then became an exile, and eventually he remained so till the end of his days. Various pleas for his return to Malta were refused by the British colonial government in Malta, even when these were repeatedly made by the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, Edmund Allenby, and later by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Winston Churchill.

Death

At the end of 1918 Dimech was transferred to a concentration camp at Sidi Bishr in Alexandria. Dire prison conditions caused his health to deteriorate fast. In November 1920, after becoming half paralyzed by apoplexy, he was transferred to Victoria College, Alexandria, at Sidi Bishr itself, a college that was transformed into a hospital due to war exigencies.[36] But by now Dimech was doomed. He died forlorn and alone on April 17, 1921,[37] and was unceremoniously buried in the sand grounds of Victoria College, Alexandria, itself. His grave was unmarked, and all attempts to locate it proved futile.

The Dimechians

A small group of young followers of Dimech continued to be somewhat active in Malta well after his deportation in 1914. They organized Malta’s first recorded strike at the Royal shipyards in 1920, and were significantly amongst the rioters against the British colonial government on 7 June 1919, riots which led to the granting of Malta’s first self-government. They were harassed and persecuted harshly by the colonial government, especially in 1914 and 1933, so much so that to be a Dimechian became quickly tantamount to public disgrace. By time, the few faithful Dimechians died out, and Dimech himself was forgotten.

Posthumous recognition

Monument to Manwel Dimech at Castille Square, Valletta

Dimech was re-introduced to the public by Gerald Azzopardi (1910–1993) in the 1960s, and later, in the 1970s, he was given more academic validity by Henry Frendo. This led to a renewed interest in Dimech’s life. Also in the 1970s, the socialist Prime Minister, Dom Mintoff, transformed Dimech into a sort of socialist icon, even though Dimech himself would have been ill at ease with such a recognition. However, Dimech’s fame was finally set. A small run of one Maltese pound coins were produced engraved with his name and likeness in 1972.[38][39][40] A monument to him was erected in 1976 in front of the Prime Minister’s office in Valletta, at one of Malta's main squares.[41] In 2004 Dr Mark Montebello placed the study and appreciation of Dimech on a new and unprecedented standing with a master biographical work called simply Dimech (PEG, Malta), which started to behold Dimech’s personality in a more balanced and objective way.

On October 14, 2012, the discovery of new Dimech manuscripts was announced dating from the last three years of his exile.[42][43] The manuscripts contain an extensive work in English made up of thousands of aphorisms, and some fables, epitaphs and poems. The discovery was made in two phases, in 2002 and 2009. Dimech's work was published in 2012 by Sensiela Kotba Socjalisti, SKS, as Aphorisms: Wisdom of a philosopher in exile.[44]

Less than two years later, in June 2014, Henry Frendo published yet other hitherto unknown manuscripts belonging to Dimech dating from the early 1880s (when Dimech was still in prison). The publication, Dimech's Lost Prison Poems (Midsea Books),[45] contains poems by Dimech (some of which signed and dated in his own hand), and letters received by Dimech while in prison.[46]

National recognition

As a sign of national recognition, on November 10, 2012, the President of Malta, Dr George Abela, unveiled in St John Street, Valletta, a commemorative plaque marking the birthplace of Dimech.[47] A year later, on October 13, 2013, the Prime Minister of Malta, Dr Joseph Muscat, unveiled in Qormi another commemorative plaque marking the spot were, in 1912, Dimech had been stoned by a mob.[48] On September 5, 2014, exactly 100 years to the day since the beginning of Dimech's exile, the President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, unveiled, close to the Customs house at Valletta (from where Dimech was sent to his exile), yet another commemorative plaque marking the event.[49][50]

Achievement

Dimech evocatively and compellingly advocated the emancipation of the masses. His assault on the entrenched structures of oppression in Malta was extraordinary, outstanding and unmatched by anything that had gone before. Dimech was not a nationalist, an anti-colonialist or a socialist in any way we would understand the terms today. He was, first and foremost, an enemy of any kind of domination, coercion, cruelty, tyranny, repression and subjugation. If this made him a nationalist, an anti-colonialist or some kind of socialist, it was surely only in an indirect and oblique way. Dimech did not achieve in his lifetime what he set out to accomplish. He was violently and unjustly truncated. Most of the policies he advocated were implemented some half a century after his death by Dom Mintoff in the 1970s.

Important dates

Month and date Year of event Age Event
December 25 1860 - Born at Valletta
June 11 1874 13 Commits first prosecuted crime (theft) just two weeks after his father's death. Sentenced to 2 days detention
October 20 1874 13 Commits second prosecuted crime (robbery), and is sentenced to one year imprisonment
May 18 1876 15 Commits third prosecuted crime (theft), and is sentenced to 20 days imprisonment
December 4 1876 15 Commits fourth prosecuted crime (theft), and is sentenced to 20 days imprisonment
January 6 1877 16 Commits fifth prosecuted crime (theft), and is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment with hard labour
May 11 1877 16 Commits sixth prosecuted crime (theft), and is sentenced to 3 months imprisonment with hard labour
October 10 1877 16 Commits seventh prosecuted crime (theft), and is sentenced to 20 days imprisonment
November 14 1877 16 Commits eighth prosecuted crime (theft), and is sentenced to one month imprisonment and £5 fine (equal to one month imprisonment)
November 1877 16 Begins learning how to read and write
February 1878 17 Commits ninth prosecuted crime (murder), and is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labour. (His accomplice is hanged)
October 30 1890 29 Released from imprisonment, he goes abroad to Tunisia. Returns in December.
January 5 1891 30 Commits tenth (final) prosecuted crime (counterfeit of false money), and is sentenced to 9 years imprisonment with hard labour.
July 31 1897 36 Definitely released from imprisonment.
January 8 1898 37 Begins weekly newspaper, Il Bandiera tal Maltin (The Flag of the Maltese).
February 1898 37 Opens school of modern languages.
March 17 1900 39 The Bishop of Malta condemns one of his articles, and admonishes him.
March 22 1900 39 His mother dies.
October 2 1900 39 Marries Virginia Agius.
April 12 1902 41 For the first time, he announces his organisation, Ix Xirca Maltïa (eventually begun in 1911).
May 1902 41 Publishes English grammar book, Il Chelliem Inglis.
November 26 1903 42 Visits Montenegro (for almost three weeks).
October 8 1904 43 Begins publishing a political novel, Ivan u Prascovia.
August 16 1906 45 Voyages abroad. Visits Marseilles and the north of Italy (Genoa, Milan and Turin).
April 1907 46 Returns from Italy.
November 1907 46 Publishes a four-language grammar book, Il Chelliem tal Erbat Ilsna.
March 19 1908 47 Returns to Italy.
May 1911 50 Returns from Italy.
June 24 1911 50 Announces his organisation, Ix Xirca tal Imdaulin (The Society of the Illumined).
October 2 1911 50 The Bishop of Malta condemns his organisation and weekly newspaper.
October 23 1911 50 The Bishop excommunicates him. A year of persecutions begins, with public demonstrations against him.
January 21 1912 51 Is almost killed by a fanatical mob at Qormi.
November 26 1912 51 Reaches agreement with the Bishop.
December 1 1912 51 The Bishop formally retires the excommunication.
March 1914 53 Publishes a book of rules for his newly established organisation, Is Sisien tax Xirca Maltïa.
August 31 1914 53 Arrested on false charges.
September 5 1914 53 Deported to Sicily.
October 1914 53 Imprisoned at Syracuse as a prisoner of war (WWI).
November 22 1914 53 Deported to Alexandria, Egypt.
December 1914 54 Imprisoned at El-Hadra (Alexandria).
January 1915 54 Transferred to concentration camp at Ras-el-Tin (Alexandria).
May 1915 54 Again sent to El-Hadra.
June 1915 54 Transferred to the mental asylum of Abbassih (Cairo).
January 1917 56 Transferred to military camp at Kasir El Nil (Cairo). Begins writing his Aphorisms (till November 1920).
December 1918 58 Transferred to concentration camp of Sidi Bishir (Alexandria).
November 4 1918 58 His son, Attilio, dies in Malta from hunger.
November 11 1918 58 World War I having ended, he formally begins his (illegal) exile.
September 12 1919 58 The Governor of Malta refuses to end his (illegal) exile.
November 1920 59 Half paralysed by apoplexy. Ends writing his Aphorisms (from January 1917).
December 1920 60 Transferred to Victoria College at Sidi Bishir itself. (The college was transformed into a hospital due to war exigencies.)
April 17 1921 60 Dies at Victoria College, Sidi Bishir (Alexandria, Egypt), and buried in an unmarked grave.

Bibliography

Posthumous

Places named after Dimech

Further reading

See also

Philosophy in Malta

References

  1. ↑ St Paul’s Parish, Valletta, Baptism Registers, Vol. XXII, f. 423.
  2. ↑ Ibid., Status Animarum, 1860, no page numbers.
  3. ↑ Public Registry, Valletta, Birth Registers, nru. 1527/1870.
  4. ↑ St George Parish, Qormi, Baptism Registers, Vol. G, f. 161v.
  5. ↑ St Publius Parish, Floriana, Death Registers at the Central Public Hospital (Floriana), Vol. A, f. 163; and URP, Death Registers, no. 1507/1874.
  6. ↑ Banca Giuratale, Mdina, Atti d’Istruzione, 1874, Vol. IV, Part 54, f. 47.
  7. ↑ National Archives of Malta, Rabat, Blue Book, 1874, Sec. AB, Parts 3-6.
  8. ↑ Ibid., Admissions and Discharges, CPP 01, November 1874, f. 3; May 1876, f. 385; December 1876, f. 68; January 1877, f. 301; May 1877, f. 116; October 1877, f. 368; November 1877, f. 650; April 1878, f. 5v.
  9. ↑ Banca Giuratale, Mdina, Procedure e Sentenze, 1878, Section XXIII, ff. 161-2.
  10. ↑ Ibid., Section XXXVI, f. 162.
  11. ↑ National Archives of Malta, Rabat, CSG 01, Prisons 17105/97.
  12. ↑ Ibid., Atti d’Istruzione, 1878, Vol. II, Part 1, f. 5v.
  13. ↑ Ibid., CSG 01, Prisons 4453/95.
  14. ↑ Ibid., Prisons 9394/86
  15. ↑ Banca Giuratale, Mdina, Procedure e Sentenze, 1891, Section XXXVI, f. 162.
  16. ↑ Manuel Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, May 13, 1899, 4b; November 17, 1900, 4a; January 15, 1898, 1c; July 8, 1899, 4a; National Archives of Malta, Rabat, CSG 01, Prisons 21463/98, Evidence given before the Commission Appointed by Government Letter No. 1467 of the 3rd May 1898, ff. 61 and 63; and Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, January 8, 1898, 2b; March 26, 1898, 2a; April 30, 1898, 1; May 21, 1898, 4a; April 1, 1899, 2b; National Archives of Malta, Rabat, CSG 01, Prisons 21463/98, Evidence given before the Commission Appointed by Government Letter No. 1467 of the 3rd May 1898, f. 35; Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, August 26, 1899, 4a; May 27, 1899, 4b; February 26, 1898, 4a; May 7, 1898, 1a-c; and July 6, 1901, 2c.
  17. ↑ Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, April 28, 1900, 4b; and May 12, 1900, 4a; and National Archives of Malta, Rabat, Superintendent’s Order Book, Memo Nru. 246.
  18. ↑ Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, September 30, 1899, 3b; National Archives of Malta, Rabat, Atti d’Istruzione, 1891, Vol. IV, Parti 59, f. 35.
  19. ↑ National Archives of Malta, Rabat, CSG 01, Prisons 17105/97.
  20. ↑ Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, 8 January 1898
  21. ↑ Montebello, Dimech, vol. 1, 2013, 231-3.
  22. ↑ National Archives of Malta, Rabat, CSG 01, Auditor General 2924/90; Customs Department Records, L103.
  23. ↑ National Archives of Malta, Rabat, Customs Department Records, L260, K850.
  24. ↑ Ibid., L293, K929, L312, K1019.
  25. ↑ Dimech, The Flag of the Maltese, June 3, 1911, 1a.
  26. ↑ The Bishop’s Archives, Floriana, Corrispondenza Pace, 1911-12, Vol. XV, doc. 161, #1.
  27. ↑ Ibid. , Editti di Monsignor Pietro Pace, Vol. 35, f. 88, ad term.
  28. ↑ The Cross (Is Salib), Malta, November 18, 1911, 2b; Malta is still Ours (Malta ghada Taghna), Malta, November 4, 1911, 4a; Ibid., October 21, 1911, 3c; October 28, 1911, 5a-c; November 4, 1911, 1a-2b; and November 11, 1911, 1b-2a; The Friend (Il Habib), Malta, May 23, 1912, 3ab; Malta, November 8, 1911, 2ef; Ibid., February 14, 1912, 2e-3a; The Cross, October 28, 1911, 3bc; November 4, 1911, 3a; Malta is still Ours, October 28, 1911, 3c; December 30, 1911, 3a.
  29. ↑ The Bishop’s Archives, Floriana, Atti Civili 1912, f. 134, doc. 4, f. 134; doc. 177A.
  30. ↑ National Archives of Malta, Rabat, Political 3688/14.
  31. ↑ Ibid., Political 3767/14, Red 19; Libr. 1511, f. 1; Political 3688/14.
  32. ↑ Ibid., LG Papers M 608/15, Dimech’s petition.
  33. ↑ Ibid.
  34. ↑ Ibid., LG Papers M 608/15, Dimech’s petition; and Gerald Azzopardi Archive, Dimech’s letter to Hugh McBain, March 28, 1915.
  35. ↑ Ibid., Despatch10/17 (Red 11).
  36. ↑ Sahar Hamouda and Colin Clement, eds., Victoria College: A History Revealed, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo, Egypt, 2002, 47.
  37. ↑ Public Registry Office, Kew, Richmond, FO 371/6291/4729, 208, Eastern 260 (E. 4792/205/16).
  38. ↑ http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/world-coin-prices.aspx?category=41095&worldcoinid=118368
  39. ↑ Times of Malta, 10 October 1972, p.2.
  40. ↑ Times of Malta, 31 January 1973, p.3.
  41. ↑ Prime Minister Dom Mintoff announced the monument on October 11, 1974; Times of Malta, Oct. 12, 1974, p.16. The statue was removed on March 10, 2015, due to a revamp being given to the square.
  42. ↑ http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20121014-new-manuscripts-of-manwel-dimech-discovered
  43. ↑ http://m.maltatoday.com.mt/magazinedetails/magazine/books/Wisdom-in-exile-Mark-Montebello-and-Francis-Galea-20121031
  44. ↑ http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121015/local/Dimech-scribblings-are-now-a-book-of-aphorisms.441123
  45. ↑ http://www.midseabooks.com/publications_detail.aspx?pid=13661#.U6GwyvkbXJ5
  46. ↑ http://issuu.com/midseabooks/docs/dimechlostpoems/1?e=12107638%2F8199379
  47. ↑ http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2012-11-13/news/dimech-belongs-to-no-political-party-president-380895235/
  48. ↑ http://www.di-ve.com/news/prime-minister-commemorates-manuel-dimech%E2%80%99s-stoning
  49. ↑ http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-09-06/news/commemoration-marking-100-yearsfrom-manuel-dimechs-exile-6476791808/
  50. ↑ http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140921/social/Centenary-commemoration-marks-Manwel-Dimech-s-exile.536563
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