21 March 2010

Herbert Ganado Gardens, Floriana, Malta

The Herbert Ganado Gardens remember the writer of the same name, and are in Floriana just outside of Valletta, Malta. Ganado (1906-75) is in some respects the exact opposite of Manwel Dimech. He was born in Floriana and was a lawyer as well as an editor and an author. He studied at the Liceo and the University of Malta, and became a lawyer in 1931. He also became the head of Catholic Action, a group of lay Catholics trying to encourage the influence of Catholism.

The Catholic newspaper Lehen is-Sewwa began in 1928, but was in severe financial trouble within five years, and looked to Catholic Action for support. Ganado became its third editor and increased the scope of the paper, including far broader subjects, and turned it into a daily.

However, Ganado wrote a series of articles supporting Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War, and it was of course assumed by the British colonial powers in Malta that he had fascist sympathies, and - an odd similarity with Dimech here - he was exiled to Africa (Uganda in this case).

His best known written work is Rajt Malta Tinbidel, (trans. My Century, which is a four-volume book of his memoirs.

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