Lorry Sant, Patrick Holland…my, what nice heroes for Progressive Labour
I’ve just discovered, because I don’t usually pay particular attention to these things, that the Sliema Labour Party Club is called CENTRU PATRICK HOLLAND.
And then the youth section of that same club had its main event a couple of weeks ago in St Anne’s Square, Sliema, site of the iconic Bonello’s Kiosk and – thanks to Patrick Holland’s corruption and abuse – its ugly (in several ways) successor, Joe Pace’s Magic Kiosk where ‘sixth MEP’ Joe Cuschieri was a waiter.
Patrick Holland ruined the Bonello brothers, both of whom had young families, by taking away their livelihood to transfer it to Joe Pace, who was rolling in it already.
We will never be clear about exactly what changed hands and how, because Patrick Holland is dead and Joe Pace isn’t telling.
But we do know this. Holland made a death-bed confession about it. One of the Bonello brothers told me how he was woken at dawn by a ringing telephone. An anonymous man at the other end of the line told him, saying that he couldn’t disclose his identity: “Patrick Holland died this past night. He asked me to tell you how deeply he regrets what he did to you, and asks for your forgiveness.”
I wrote about this some years ago in my column in The Malta Independent.
If you are not from Sliema and my generation or older, you will be unable to understand the full significance of what happened here. Sliema was nothing like it is today. It was an extremely tight-knit community where people knew each other and there were no flats full of strangers. The Bonellos and their kiosk were a main focus of the community, Patrick Holland was a local boy turned bad and one of the worst elements in Mintoff’s government, and after the literally overnight loss of their kiosk and their livelihood (and in a context in which there were absolutely no jobs to be had) the Bonello brothers were supported financially for a long time by the owner of the shop across the road: Gorg Grech of Square Deal.
Joseph Muscat, to use the currently fashionable terminology, is a FW for allowing the Sliema Labour Party Club to carry on calling itself after one of Mintoff’s most corrupt cabinet ministers (but then he doesn’t seem to mind the Lorry Sant club in Paola, either).
He’s also a FW for picking the site of Bonello’s Kiosk/Magic Kiosk for his most recent attempt to pick up votes in Sliema, or if, as I suspect is the case, he doesn’t know anything about this bit of his party’s history because it didn’t feature in his 90-glorious-years-of-Labour exhibition, then he is an even bigger one.
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http://www.freewebs.com/mlptas-sliema/index.htm
As you said Daphne…. ‘If you are not from Sliema and my generation or older, you will be unable to understand the full significance of what happened here.’….. so why do you expect Joseph Muscat to be any different?
[Daphne – Because he’s the party leader and future prime minister, Ivan. In that position, you have to be clued up. You don’t try to collect votes in Sliema by preaching in, of all places, St Anne’s Square with Joe Cuschieri, when to real Slimizi, Cuschieri is a Magic Kiosk waiter and Magic Kiosk is the result of Patrick Holland’s corruption.]
If he’s not any different, he’s their best bet to go back to their old ways.
He may be different in that he needs his predecessor’s experience and influence to remain in control.
Problem is his predecessor never gave up core power.
There’s a real possibility that if elected they’ll be at each others’ throats again, with Joseph cowering behind his wife.
Guess where the rest of us will be.
Well, having Joseph Muscat clued up about what happened before he was even born is fine.
What worries me most is that we might end-up reliving those same days because the people around Muscat are quite the same. Sceberras Trigona, Anglu Farrugia, Karmenu Vella … some things never change and Labour is one of them.
Funny that you mentioned Malta’s “Sixth MEP.”
If Mr. Cuschieri is regarded as Malta’s sixth MEP when there is not even a formally acknowledged seat for him, then can’t the other MEP candidates who ranked after him claim to be Malta’s seventh, eighth, ninth MEPs? I am sure Kev would be delighted with my suggestion.
In the good ole’ glory days of Soldiers of Steel and F, F,F, W and Bs galore, the Magic Kiosk putsch was one of the more blatant and heartless episodes in a long line-up.
What the hell. New Labour, Old Hat.
They are still listing Alfred Sant as Labour Party Leader.
http://www.freewebs.com/mlptas-sliema/strutturi.htm
Another facet of the PL’s obnoxious past.
No wonder they are strongly allergic to the mere mention of it.
This Joe Pace was mentioned tonight on Net TV during the programme about the Lino Cauchi murder.
As was Angelo Farrugia – arresting Cauchi’s wife after her appeal for information on husband’s whereabouts.
(but then he doesn’t seem to mind the Lorry Sant club in Paola, either).
Even our own Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando doesn’t seem to mind Lorry Sant. He said he prefers him to some PN colleagues.
Lorry Sant u Patrick Holland – zewg ministri importanti hafna tal-Golden Years.
If I remember correctly, was a bomb placed at Square Deal? I was young at that time, but I recall something of the sort.
Since I can’t sleep tonight, I thought of Googling “Lorry Sant”, “BICAL” and “Lino Cauchi” – a search sparked off over dinner with a friend who says “we need a change in government”.
This post turned up along with several other articles/links and so on.
I know, because I lived it first-hand, how hhorrible living in those timed had been but I forget how bad and serious it really was.
And fools, like the abovementioned friend, are so short-sighted who are willing to hand the country back to the likes of Anglu Farrugia who arrested Cauchi’s wife in relation to her husband’s disappearance. And of course, I told my friend he’s a dim-witted, naive, short-sighted fool.
Peoples who forget their nations’ past are condemned to repeat it.