Jose has trouble with names – just like his sister
They might have bought a house in Sliema, but they're straight from the sticks. A couple of chavs and no mistake about it.
Consuelo thought that Michael Cassar, the head of the Vice Squad at the time, was a corrupt police officer who sent drinks to her restaurant table.
And now her brother is having trouble with names, too. Poor man.
I thought I’d give you a little time to digest the report of his awful diatribe on Super One (see previous post) before I put a rocket under his rubbish and point out that he’s confusing Sir Arturo Mercieca with Sir Michelangelo Refalo.
The trouble with Jose Herrera is that he’s basically a chav from the sticks whose father became a judge and bought a house in Stella Maris parish, Sliema. When you come from that background, you have no idea of the Old Sliema and Old Valletta networks that people like me (oh, how I love saying that to arriviste chavs like Consuelo and Jose, whose idea of a social network is other chavs like them) know from birth as a matter of course.
Here’s the Malta Today report:
The Labour MP also recalled how the former pre-war Chief Justice Sir Arturo Mercieca had purchased a huge house close to the British Governor’s home, apparently in a bid to compete on the social circuit by hosting regular, lavish parties.
“My father had also bought a big house in St. Vincent Street in Sliema, and used to host regular dinner parties,” he added. “But why should the Commission ever have to delve into the social lives of the members of judiciary?” Herrera asked
When I read that, I laughed out loud at the utter stupidity of the man. Quite frankly, he and his sister haven’t many brains between them, just plenty of arrogance to make up for their lack of breeding. ‘Dinner parties’, indeed – who says that, for heaven’s sake? The last time I heard it was in court last week, when Consuelo was under cross-examination and, in describing some supper for friends at her house, she said, in precisely these words: “KIENET A DINNER PARTY.” And I sat there in the dock thinking “God, what a chav.”
I knew immediately that Jose is confusing Sir Arturo Mercieca with Sir Michelangelo Refalo. It was the latter who lived at Villa Refalo, now the Corinthia Palace Hotel, just across the street from the Governor’s home at San Anton Palace in Attard. Helpful hint, Jose: that’s why it was called Villa Refalo and not, say, Villa Mercieca.
And how do I know all this? Simple. Sir Michelangelo Refalo’s daughter Maude was married to my grandfather’s brother, Colonel Victor George Vella. And my parents’ wedding reception was held at Villa Refalo in 1960.
Sir Michelangelo did not buy Villa Refalo to compete with the Governor and to throw big parties. He had a certain amount of inherited property and Villa Refalo was part of it. He did not throw big parties and show off. He wasn’t a chav, like the Herreras. If he were, my grandfather’s brother wouldn’t have married his daughter (oh, how I love rubbing it in).
He did not ‘buy a huge house close to the British Governor’s home, apparently in a bid to compete on the social circuit’. He inherited the house, and I repeat, only chavs and arrivistes ‘compete on the social circuit’. The Governor and Sir Michelangelo Refalo would never even have understood the concept.
As for Sir Arturo Mercieca, the thought of him buying a huge house to compete on the social circuit is risible. He was as poor as a church mouse because all he had was the pittance that judges then earned. He had seven children, lived in a rented house in Valletta and then another rented house in Ta’ Xbiex. And he didn’t throw parties.
How do I know? He was my grandmother’s cousin.
I can understand why a man from the sticks would confuse the two, but that is no excuse for slandering the memory of either one of them.
Both were knighted. Both were chief justice. Sir Michelangelo was, as it happens, Sir Arturo’s immediate predecessor as chief justice. The first was appointed in 1919 and the second in 1924.
Oh, and another thing. Perhaps I should also mention that another of my grandfather’s siblings was married to Judge Antoine Montanaro-Gauci, and that the reason I saw so much of her was because she was a near-permanent fixture in my grandparents’ Valletta drawing-room. Her husband had a tightly restricted social life and demanded the same of his wife, who then socialised mainly with family.
Something else Jose ‘Chav Nation’ Herrera might wish to know. This was my great-great-great-grandfather, but certainly not his:
Ferdinando Caruana Dingli – Godson of the last Grandmaster
– from The Professors of International Law with the faculty of Law, the University of Malta, by Raymond Mangion, Dept of Public Law, the Faculty of Law, University of Malta
Professor Dr Ferdinando Caruana Dingli was the first academic lawyer and advocate to occupy the Chair of International and Constitutional law from the moment the course of law was re-organized pursuant to the Statuto Fondamentale of 1838. Ferdinand was born in Valletta on 12 January 1798, son of Giuseppe Caruana Dingli and Antonia née Farrugia Ferdinando’s father Giuseppe – son of Francesco Caruana and Giovanna Dingli, and the island’s Comptroller of Customs – was a close associate, perennial supporter and regular creditor of Grandmaster Von Hompesch (Note to Jose: that’s CREDITOR not debtor. He lent huge amounts of money to Grandmaster von Hompesch, who never settled his debts after he fled Malta when Napoleon arrived, bankrupting his friend when he defaulted on the loan).
Caruana Dingli was revered as one of the most illustrious deceased scholars of Malta and long after his demise his conspicuous memory was still reverberating inside the campus of the highest educational institution of Malta. Along with Sir Ignazio Gavino Bonavita and Sir Adrian Dingli, he was remembered as one of the eminent ‘giureconsulti’ of truly great stature who emerged from the small island of Malta in the nineteenth century.
Here’s Jose again:
“I insist that whoever criticises the social lives of magistrates and judges has no background on lawyers: it is a known fact that judges used to seek homes with big halls to host dinner parties at least once a month,” Herrera said.
Spoken like a true Johnny-come-lately, though I am sorely tempted to use the H word. I may not have a ‘background on lawyers’ (despite being married to one for 25 years) but I can certainly teach Jose Herrera some lessons about one professor of international law, two chief justices and a very notable judge. And I have just done so.
Something else: I spoke earlier to one of Sir Arturo’s descendants and was told that the extended family is absolutely furious at the slander.
The trouble with those Herreras is that they measure everything by their own cheap and tawdry yardstick. They don’t even have the self-awareness (or understanding of the word) to know that what they call a ‘social life’ others like me recognise as a shoddy demi-monde of over-sexed chavs with a bit of recently acquired money or a law degree which they believe makes them the ne plus ultra of power and society.
They are so gross and unappealing that I don’t know where to begin.
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Tell us more about their background.
Where do they come from?
Who were their ancestors?
(I am referring to the Herreras of course.)
[Daphne – I wouldn’t know. Or as one of my grandmothers used to say, in a spirit of genuine enquiry when somebody outside the Old Valletta circle was mentioned, ‘Min huma? Ma nafuhomx.’ They’re arrivistes, so I began counting with Consuelo.]
You know Daphne. Sometimes I wonder what features on Jose’ Herrera’s income tax return.
So Min Weber was right. The man is a pastazun, a wonderful Maltese word that fits him like a glove. He even went ahead and slandered two gentlemen of impeccable breeding for his own ends.
Daphne, I think that what Jose Herrera is proposing about big houses and dinners is really noble.
We know from Joseph Muscat and his party that the mittel klass is not in a position to make ends meet and that they are starving. I think Jose is proposing that magistrates will now invite the mittel kless to free dinner parties which the magistrates will hold on a regular basis in large houses which they will acquire for this purpose.
This solves the problem for the executive arm of the government. Now that makes Jose a natural Minister of Justice.
How cheap men look, in a half buttoned shirt. Hate that look, especially on middle aged men of his `calibre`(?)
That, according to José Herrera, is a dinner jacket.
I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall at one of the Herrera ‘dinner parties’.
Picture the scene: people like Vince Micallef and Charlon Gouder wearing ‘smart casual’ and drinking wine and wondering how best to use the cutlery, while feeling that they have arrived because Labour is about to ‘win the government’.
If Consuelo wore prissy suits and were monogamous, she would be Hyacinth Bucket.
I’ve passed this comment on other occasions but it bears repeating. Such arrogance and verbal violence when still in opposition – what will Labour be like in government?
A rerun of the one before last.
Exactly as it always was in the past when in government. Some of the people may have changed but their collective philosophy remains the same. Expect an awful and dismal half-decade.
This johnny-come-lately surely owes an apology to the Mercieca family. That is if there is any gentleman left in him.
[Daphne – Gentleman? Jose? Does a gentleman shout ‘F’ghoxx Gonzi il-prim ministru taghkom’ in parliament? I don’t think so. Both he and his sister are clones of their father, who I can still picture driving around in his big Mercedes and shouting at people. A Mercedes on a judge’s salary, really.]
As for his background on lawyers, all I can say is that the Bormla family known as Ta’ Cettuqu (no, you will not find this on Google) was not renowned for its legal tradition but for other more nefarious interests.
[Daphne – Please don’t tell me they’re originally from Bormla bil-laqam Ta’ Cettuqu. Now this is something Consuelo Herrera (‘kienet a dinner party’) has kept WELL hidden. Pray tell.]
Jose Herrera ta’ Cettuqu?
A big house and a Mercedes?
Did he also have a sauna and room for a pony?
The semblance of the magistrate with Mrs Bouquet goes beyond the candle light suppers and benevolent collections for the vicar.
Can anyone please confirm if Consuelo’s father had property in St.Paul’s Bay and a small cabin cruiser around 1982/1984?
[Daphne – Yes. He did. It was small only by today’s standards.]
A very hard-working judge, I must say!
Don’t these idiots, when in a hole, have any idea when to stop digging?
Let’s have a proper dinner party and show these yobs how it’s done.
Call in the Chippendales. There’s one who takes ‘black tie’ literally.
There’s more dignity in my packed lunch than in fifty years of Herrera’s “dinner parties”.
I just received ‘Kitchen’ by Nigella today, maybe I’ll volunteer to cook
My grandmother’s brother – Sir Arturo Mercieca – had that rare combination of a razor sharp mind with an integrity so deep it almost verged on the naive. As a boy, I remember walking the Marsalforn promenade holding his hand and my father’s and being confused by a behavioural trait of his. In the most genteel manner, he would eschew talking to other people. Today I understand why. Sir Arturo a party animal? Not quite.
Ah, but maybe you’re not telling us that he favoured wearing shirts open to the paunch.
I was rummaging through the archives at the law courts in Valletta earlier today, and found this old, early 1900s photograph of a magistrate or judge handing out judgement at a trial. The identity of the accused is unknown, but could the other one be Sir Arturo Mercieca? The photograph is faded and scratched, so any help will be appreciated.
I attach a copy below
http://www.3wishes.com/images/judgegiltverdict1-d.jpg
Is the family of a Spanish origins, being Herrera and both children have Spanish names?
I still remember the days when they had a legal office in Qormi and the people were refering to her as ConsuelA. An O ending for a female name seemed so strange in Qormi.
[Daphne – No, that’s just the chaviness coming out: because they have a Spanish surname, the children have matchy-matchy Spanish names.]
http://archive.maltatoday.com.mt/2002/0407/report070402.html
no further comment!
“The conclusions of the Permanent Commission against Corruption, presided over by Justice Victor Borg Costanzi, state that “there is no evidence to show that Judge Herrera was involved in any act of corruption in the occasion of the issuing of building permits”.”
Which reminds me of the spin given by Labour to the Auditor General’s conclusion that he found no conclusive evidence of corruption. Labour: two weights and two measures.