Paint thrown at statue

To Tania Fiorentino

I was in Vittoriosa as well and I can assure everyone that rude words were forthcoming from the San Duminku supporters on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. Rude words and swear words are always ugly but even moreso when they come from women!!! This happens each and every year.

To Paul Dominic Calleja
If your comment portrays the truth this would mean that the Maltese tradition really stooped to an all time low!!!! The Dominicans in Vittoriosa organise a feast that fits their numbers, a very low key and small feast!

well done to the dumnikani for the great feast you did. Excellent and really traditional Maltese. Keep it up ...we really enjoyed it and a lot of people too

Of course there will be no rude words, we are not provocative as they are!. if you believe that i will be with a bottle or something of any sort making noise, well I'm sorry to disappoint you,, I'm not that kind of person. from my part, I encourage the few domnicans supporters to remember that accidents happen to everyone.

to B Callus
After your posts I went to vittoriosa yesterday. Thought I would find nothing but to my astonishment there was a band march. Waited for the rude words and oppps... none. Hope to see you today and hope you will not be with a bottle of flit or making signs mate.... please grow up---and by the way those who do not know St Domnic and St Laurence hail from Spain.I solicit the domenican supporters not to take care of these posts and continue to enjoy their feast

Well mr Ciscaldi I never meant to offend your feelings, but the truth is that Hamrun is the peak of rude words! Shall I say how many times rude words for tat-tamal and tal-miskina were heard, in a perfect melody with the marches played by the band clubs? the difference is that rude words at Birgu were heard as a response to provocations, and not as a tradition like Hamrun. I do not blame band clubs, i just blame the people who are not educated. we have one offs like that of course, but they are immediately silenced. in hamrun people are let chanting rude words from the gallarija tal-kazin ta! Again, there is the difference!

i dont say that it is only a young ppl custom. but it is widespread yes. about the solution, it is quite impossible, there are loopholes in the current regulations.

my presence at hamrun was only because my girlfriend is from hamrun and having accompanied me at my feast, i did the same in the hamrun marches. if you believe that we bandisti are disgusting, then you should not even thought about feasts!

@b.callus . . .Again Hamrun in the agenda !!. .but can you leave us people in peace?. . you are saying it by yourself, we did not shout rude words on the 8th but on the 9th. . so were is all this difference you are talking about,?? weren't you disgusted there again by the supporters of your beloved band club?.

Dont you think that this is (unfortunately) a widespread custom between young people attending the marches?, I think you well know what loads of voluntary work is involved to set up a feast,so why not try to find a solution for this problem instead of pointing fingers, "u ghax dak ghamel hekk mela billi namlu hekk ahna ma gara xejn" attitude?

and being so vulgar and disgusting, what were you doing at hamrun mr.callus?, nothing good or enjoyable happens there right?, ahhh maybe you are one of those hundreds that come and earn your monies with one of the band clubs. . ???, that is not so disgusting after all isn't it. . ?

@M.Galea: Could it be the case that your laser beams are still beaming in Vittoriosa and blinded the Driver! Its a pity it did`nt hit St.Vincent he could have flown rather than crash! Joking apart my friend I think nobody should be happy when accidents happen including the pole, barge explosion, paint, damaged crosses, ftira bil-butir u bigilla!!!tpatijja!! etc.. GN

ONLY IN GOZO!! HUH!

@ D Zammit. the Band Clubs Association does not regulate these things. pls be informed well about its rolebefore you speak. you can visit the website.

and by the way, do you know who is the Secretary of the same Association? mr JC Azzopardi, a staunch Domnican from Vittoriosa. may be you can tell him to advance such requests

Ha ha really funny D Zammit. I challenge you, there were NO RUDE Words on 8th of August. Rude words were on the 9 th as an instinctive reaction to the last of a series of provocations (explained below). well i think the domnicans should avoid coming down to the pjazza and remove st dominic from the pjazza, then maybe we consider removing st lawrence from that place, which is more than 100 yrs old by the way, and do not pass in front of their club.

as regards the importance of the feast, well i think other people can decide more clearly what feast is important or not. Sincerely I do not know what this has to do with the paint throwing.

well well, we should condemn all feasts then. those who attend marches can say that. these things and insults are found all over Malta. They are not good and I am against them. I was disgusted at the Feast of Hamrun for example, all those rude words. again, I already said it somewhere else in this blog, if there is a feast where insults and rude words are avoided in marches, thats' Vittoriosa. From our part, we avoid from playing marches in which people tend to say rude words or offend st dominic. if all of Malta take our example, then feasts will be a bit more cleaner.

@ B CallusPity you did not invite the people to the band march of St. Laurence on the 8th Of August when out of all the roads and piazzas in Vittoriosa, you and your angel friends stop infront of the other band's club for an hour of swearing and singing with foul language whilst calling the others vulgar names and teasing your neighbours.

Why does the feast of St. Laurence need to put up the statue JUST IN FRONT of the other band club's door? WHY? Don't you think that this is VERY PROCOVATIVE? How about asking the Curia? Ooops sorry, your band club President is in the committee that regulates and oversees these problems. How can you ever grow up!!

I think that the feast of St. Dominic in Vittoriosa has gained enough importance that the other feast supporters cannot accept it.

Insomma, see you all from tyhis evening to next Sunday @ Vittoriosa.

what about condemnation b callus where ever it comes from

@ Joan Calleja - We are talking about a CD which is full of tghajjir towards the patron saint of our city - st Lawrence. We are talking about a CD in which its content must be prohibited from the curia, as it goes against the regulations put forward by this institution.

it seems that during the St Dominic Feasts you were 'too busy' with your services as altar boy, having no time to attend the marches. if you did attend, then you do remember all the insults and signs coming from the domnican side. and one last thing. Who has been condemned exactly? The super red machos? who are these? I think the police would be keen to get in touch with these super red machos, as you are making us believe they were the authors of such act.

What Tania Parascandalo said may be true, especially when hearing that ppl from cospicua are the suspects. it is no secret that the feasts of vittoriosa, especially the parish feast, are envied by the surroundings. some would do whatever is necesary to see the birgu feasts drop to a lower level.

@J Farrugia:Yours is the standard reply given by those in favour of a big brother state and I was expecting it. Let me give you a very simple scenario. Some government body installs a CCTV camera near the shop where you buy your newspaper on the pretext of catching the 'criminal' who has been taking his dog there and not picking up after it. You work in some government ministry (bear with my conjecture) and someone watching the tapes notices that you buy the opposition newspaper! End of your job!

Don't tell me that it is far fetched - just travel back in time to the Mintoff days where being seen with a PN newspaper in certain places was dangerous and no sane person working with the government would take such a paper to his place of work. Imagine how the power of CCTV cameras would have been used in those days.

a abela it seems you have the right to chose the colour vandals should throw...shame on you

to tania parascandolo
tania if you are so sure it was a frame up please go to the police. or else you are condoning and sympatizing with hese vandals and ignorant people. All other excuses marches cd etc are all excuses.
solicit police to take action
may the domenican community enjoy their feast in peace as they always do.

for eveyone information,on the night of the accident ,at about 3.00 of the morning a policeman noticed that 4 young ppl from Cospicua were running in Vittoriosa.When they saw the policman they run away and the police man asked for help at the police station.They investigated 2 of them and when were asked what were doing at that time,they answered they were playing hide and seek. (?!) Atfer a few minutes the policeman passed near the statue and he saw the painting.Fresh painting....Obviosly he suspected in that guys and they were asked to go again to the police station but no proof found.

Now judge by yourself......4 guys from cospicua knowing that the feelings in the city of Birgu are not nice..... And RED painting....Red painting was never thrown to this statue

Please grow up what CD are we talking about here. Been an alter boy in the eighties at Birgu and remember St Laurence supporters doing the @qrun@ when st domnic passes or throwing bottles at the statue whilst no one disturbed the st laurence feast.Thought the old times passed but no.....this time condemnation taken because media took action and the super red machos has been condemned

Twenty five years ago we left Vittoriosa Square to a more quiter place in a nearby village. I come from a family that my father side's belong to the St. Lawrence side and my mother's side towards the St. Dominic's side. We never fought during the month of August. In the early eighties having paint thrown at the statue of Saint Dominic was not a new story at all. I was under the impression that those were the old days, but it seems that idiots and ignorant people are still amongst the old fanatics and story is repeating itself. A shame on you all who have done such vandalisim. You should never say that you belong to "Citta Vittoriosa".

The paint thrown at the St Domenic statue should be condemned. I think everyone agrees on this. Let's hope that the culprits are caught so that we will have a true picture of the situation. But there are more things apart from vandalism that should be condemned. Remember the barkun accident when luckily or miraculously no one died in that incident. Come two weeks later and the St Dominic faithful singing during their march about the accident. Come on. And what about the recent pole accident. A prominent figure from the Prince of Wales committee distributing mails about the incident with photos of it and even Mr President as a regular visitor to the St Paul's stores in Valletta laughing it out and saying that the Pole is a 'Lampuki' stick. Come on grow up. This morning there was an incident involving a statue which was hit by a truck. An accident can happen to everyone so one must be sorry for this cause there's no gain. But things like the CD, the loud music from the POW club and much more show lack of responsibility and don't augur well for the future.

@P. Saliba
You are wrong on all counts, band clubs tend to be very strict in regards of hotheads for a very simple reason, They work all year round for their annual festa and they don't want their work to be ruined by some idiot. Most band clubs even approach the local police station to keep certain individuals from attending a march. Troublemakers generally are no band club members and probably not even from the locality in which a feast is held. Band Clubs in Malta are very innovative, they adapt themselves to the always changing way of life without losing their raison d'etre. They are active all year round and this is the reason for which they have such a strong following. The Premises of these clubs are always being embellished by works of art. Their members work hard through the year in various musical, cultural and social activities.
PS - P. Saliba no Band Club will ruin all the work done because of some idiot, they have rules known as "L-Istatut", just break one of the rules and you are thrown out for good.

why should taxpayers money be spend when the criminals are pampered in court.

@ Joseph Schembri
If you have nothing to hide, do nothing against the law - more so against your dearest family ( speaking in general). I wish that it would be possible to cover all of malta with CCTV, but that's just day dreaming.

@Joseph Aguis

I like you hope that the culprits will get caught.
But what do you think the court or law is going to do them?

Answer; let them go freeeee

Today morning at Vittoriosa a truck hit a column with a statue on top ,the statue fell and was destroyed......I think that some of you now will say that the truck driver was a St Lawrence fan kamikaze!

@Pierre Giusti: yet another cry for Big Brother to watch us. Much as I am against vandalism and the apprehending of the culprits I hate the idea of the state invading my privacy more than it is doing at present. What if I were underneath that statue admiring the stars with a lady friend (dear spouse please note my use of the unreal conditional) and I got captured on tape, where would that leave my marriage?

Joking apart, stop urging policy makers to curtail our freedoms please!

More vandalism.

Just one more selfish action that continuously proves that Malta needs to be covered in close circuit cameras to catch all these culprits and stop abuse.

Why does it always take so long for things to be done??? Now more money can be wasted in cleaning off the red paint rather than being spent on somehting useful or beautiful.

Competition and rivalry is healthy because it fosters innovation, improvement, and excellence, but I doubt whether this principle applies to the supporters of band clubs in Malta and Gozo. Clubs' committees should address this issue and expel any members showing overly aggressive and militant attitudes.

@ Duncan Brincat. Thanks for the information. Even more saddening then that paint should be thrown repeatedly at a statue of St. Anthony for no fathomable reason. I have fond childhood memories of the lovely village of Kalkara. It's a pity that they are marred by the ugly picture in my mind of that statue covered in paint.

@ Joseph Schembri

Mr. Schembri, please note that there is no statue of Saint Joseph in the vicinity of the church of Saint Barbara, situated in the limits of the Monastery of the Capuchins in Kalkara. I think you are referring to another stone statue depicting Saint Anthony the Abbot, holding baby Jesus in his hands. Kindly note that the Kalkara Parish is dedicated to the Glorious Saint Joseph, and both local band clubs have Saint Joseph as their Patron Saint. We consider ourselves united after this glorious saint, and no true Kalkariz would ever throw any kind of paint towards a shrine dedicated to him. Through this comment, our Society condems all acts of vandalism towards any religious statues or shrines.

Chev. Duncan Brincat
General Secretary
Circolo San Giuseppe Filarmonika Sagra Familja, Kalkara A.D. 1897

If Mr. Joh Borg is so sure that this is no frame up, I assume that he knows who the culprits are. Please bring them forward. At least I give it the benefit of the doubt.

As for insults and what have you, we have heard it all before. This comes from both sides. While I fully do not agree with the street parties in the name of our saints, it does not mean that whoever has done this act may be a St. Lawrence supporter.

Let's see justice being done first, Mr Joh.

"Il qasqus taqtaghlu denbu qasqus jibqa."

dear F. Williams, there is no connection with the pole and this accident. again, please do not 'hallat hass mal-pitravi'!

@ Joe Abela, the big pole has nothing to do with this story. that was an accident due to faults in the crane. The throwing of this paint has nothing to do with ANY of the circumstances connected to the Feast of St Lawrence. I myself, a supporter and committee member of st Lawrence Band Club, deplore what happened. But...

I invite you to come down to Vittoriosa next friday to see what real insults are. I'm sure your opinion will be altered. Secondly, what you described as main sport was an instinctive reaction to the last of a series of provocations coming from our friends id-dumnikani. During that march, in the presence of the President of the Prince of Wales Band Club (the Dumnikani Band) music at a very high level was played when the St Lawrence Band was passing in front of this Club. What do you expect to be the peoples reaction? and if there is a march where rude words and tghajjir esagerat are avoided, thats our march.

to maria dolores fenech

Action against whom? To my knowledge no culprits have been caught as yet, even though a lot of rumours and hearsays are flying around.

As regards the alleged 'continuous vandalism' on this statute, please note that the last time that this took place was in 1990....I do not think that an episode that has reoccured after18 years qualify as continous.

Once agan I reiterate that this episode is to be condemned without any reservations whatsoever but everyone has his good points and bad points and as the maltese saying goes 'Ahjar tara t-travu f''ghajnejk qabel tara x-xahra f'ghajnejn haddiehor'.

I have been to St Dominic feast once in the early ninties. It was the time when even the statue of st dominic has been vandalised.St Laurence supporters were so happy that they related the pink colour as if St Dominic has a baby girl and lot of other ignorant gibes.to add insult to injury they stayed iin a proment part not leaving the others enjoy them selves hurling insults. Since then the vittoriosa community has made a lot of strides but been to the morning march of St Laurence and the main sport was to insult the "Dumnikani". I hope that this is not all because St Laurence supporters had an accident in which their gigantic pole broke of last weekend. If this is true its the dark ages again. Still waiting St Laurence Band club etc to deplore

I understand that this could have been an act of rivalry between two band clubs by some weak minded individual/s. I am sure that St. Dominic knows what was in the (probably drunken) heart of the person who threw the paint.

But I have never understood why people have thrown paint, repeatedly throughout the years, over a statue of St. Joseph holding a baby Jesus, which is situated outside the grounds of the quaint Capuchin's monastery in the outskirts of Kalkara. I don't know the 'band politics' of that particular village but it really hurts me to see this disrespect shown towards an image of the saint after whom so many Maltese people are named.

St Dominic statue (near Cospicua Scout HQ) has been vandalised for as long as I remember (more than 35 years). This is not the first time, and nobody took action. Why did no one install a CCTV camera, knowing too well what usually happens. I remember the scouts cleaning up the mess of these vandals.
Will the Curia take action over this accident?

Dr Emmy D Bezzina we should than cancel football matches and elections. We can't blame everything that happens on feasts. The police have to do thier job, for the 99.9999999 % that behave properly. Should we close banks, due to bank robbers. We have to deal with the rowdy feast attendees with an iron fist. let's not punish everyone, because of the few.

Come on what sinjorina. or St Dominic is a ballerina in the St Laurence hyms....shame on you all. Furthermore throwing paint to st domenic was a popular sport. last time was pink, before it was bottles of lager. The small domenican community does a lot of good and on frame ups i suggest to visit st laurence site and the fun of insulting others is in pictures in ffront of prince of wales band club.this is no frame up

To Dennis Zammit

SINJORINA is the only word that can be quoted from the CD.....others cannot be written or published. The St Dominic community should do well to try to control the persoanl urges of some of its fans, who sometimes do not even hail from Vittoriosa.

Having said all this I deeply and truly condemn the throwing of paint on St Dominic's statute. This incident has thrown us back decades when this occurence was regular due to the ignorance and the unnecessary piques that existed between the supporters of the two Vittoriosa feasts.

Finally, I totally agree with what Tania Parascandolo said.

Perhaps it's time for the church authorites to clamp down on the outright paganism surrounding Maltese festas.
Cancel external manifestations for a year. This might calm down the bottle throwing hordes , it will silence the louts uttering obscenities about the " opposing " saint and it will sober up ( at least during the festa) the drunken under aged " revellers" .
It might also give us all a rest from those petards and we the money everyone saves could be spent for a much nobler cause. I am sure the various saints will be far far happier.

What is going on with saints and feasts, in Malta and the Maltese? First we had St. George losing his head. Then St. Helen broke her cross, now St. Dominic gets red paint all over him?
Are all these coincidences or bad omens? What’s next? I hope that St. Philip doesn’t lose his cool, St. Paul doesn’t swing his sword and the Immaculate Conception of Bormla doesn't walk off her silver pedestal in disgust at the Maltese?

If this act of vandalism has been done to frame up those who support the St. Lawrence feast, all I can say is that these persons are cowards.
While I fully deplore this act for all reasons: heritage, beliefs, traditions etc. poeple of Birgu, please unite and do not let anyone give the impression that we Girbin are some barbarians. This act may have been done by those who are jeolous that Birgu is becoming the finest city of Cottonera.

To Joe Cachia and Emy Bezzina

You two really do not have anything to talk about. Mr Joe Cachia, I can never understand how the word 'Sinjorina' can ever be classified as "BAD WORDS". Wow !!!! How small or compact your vocabulary or dictionary is !!!

Your explanation seems to be that the red paint must have been in return to this 'Bad worded' CD.

Now, everyone expects that all sides in Vittoriosa come out and condemn this shameful act especially those who do not celebrate the feast of St. Dominic this weekend. This would surely calm down the pressure that this act has created.

First of all treat all arguments separately please. Dr. Bezzina I assume that being a lawyer you should know this and your argument does not match to what happened in Birgu. You are only speculating about what were the causes of the incident without any base at all!!! The feast committees have issued a bold statement which you and a number of other bloggers have not even read.

Feasts are being ridiculed in these blogs by people who do not know what is happening in feasts!! They just rely on what used to be, what they saw on TV or heard from the mini market next door. Involve yourselves in village festas and work voluntarily for a whole year doing this and that. Most even indulge in helping people away from drugs and other habits. Why nobody ever mentions the enormous effort done by Band Clubs to set an example? Most notorious local musicians have been (and some are still) involved in band clubs. Is this not a good thing? Yes, start putting POSITIVE notes please about what is really happening!!!

@ Joe Cachia. I am only a supporter of Valletta F.C. and yes I am also a devotee of St.Dominic and not a party!!??. And as a Christian Dominican I can condemn any barbaric acts against our historical culture and against our faith. And yes I am disgusted to hear about this infamous cd which from my information has nothing to do with the official Vittoriosa community. I hope whoever is responsable for these acts gets punished individually for causing great harm and shame in the small population of Vittoriosa which both organize big feasts full of splendid decorations and is a gem in our Maltese History. This incidents tarnish the efforts of whoever is involved in the organisation of feasts. So as you see Mr.Cachia I have no hidden agendas! As already said the pique in Birgu and in other towns and cities has gone over the limit and the church needs to take an upperhand in these situations.

To Mr.Sammut Dacoutrous,

A thorough and deep study of the life during the Roman Empire clearly shows where the Roman Catholic Church rituals originated from.

There fore my facts are just actual, real and clear facts.

If you don't agree it is your divine right. I do not contest that. I would never force a point on a person as that is too dogmatic for my taste.

All the village and town festas were, are and would still be pagan influenced.

I do not want to enter into a fruitless discussion that you wrote about on how Dominic (the dog of god) became a saint as that is beside the point which is that all festas and rituals are pagan influenced.

However ending finally on a good point we both condemn this downright stupid and silly act.

Good day

Shame on whoever commited the vandalous and cowardous act on the statue of St Domenic in Vittoriosa. Similarly I deplore band clubs supporters who chorale using offensive and demeaning words. Such negative behaviour, wherever it comes from shames us all. I appeal to all concerned not to let the shamful acts of the very few to disrupt the serenity of the people of Vittoriosa and the great efforts and achievements of those who worked hard to organize the feast of St Domenic this comming weekend.

@ philip pace

Dear Sir - Please get your facts straight about the orrigins of the Catholc Church, the rituals etc... While i do partially agree that the village festa has become somewhat a pagan affair, i do not believe this for the same reasons. Ultimately the person became a Saint for a reason - why? Because the followed Jesus. Now through the festas we see locally, a sense of worship is placed towards these people when their aim in life was to worship God. They tried to get others to worship God and now people are almose worshiping them. That is the problem - IDOLATRY!!

A question to the person or persons who did this act of vandalism - What is it you think you have achieved? Respect or disgust towards your on selves?
I am sure that disgust is putting it very mildly. SHAME ON YOU

arrogance and ignorance at their best! not more to say!

@ Dr Bezzina
Your line of thought is correct however you are a little too extreme. One must keep in mind that the festa is not just a religious feast, but it is also a traditional celebration. It is an appreciation of the community that we live in and which is to be enjoyed with our neighbours and friends. Rivalry does give things an ugly twist and the Kurja is doing one hell of a BAD job at containing it.
During the last feast of Dingli, the traditional shower tents were put to a stop by the Kurja for no apparent reason. It was a peaceful celebration by the Dingli youth which attracted many tourists and was a annual appointment for most of the village. However Kurja felt like it should keep clamp down and it did so in the most undemocratic way by asking to stop the fun otherwise ‘other consequences were to follow’. Noone from the Kurja was sent to investigate. It was a blind decision on a small & peaceful village.

Welcome to the circus,

While condemning this act as it has ruined a part of our heritage, one should be level headed about this act of vandalism.

One should admit that the festas are just a pagan ritual and nothing else.

The whole heirarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has borrowed heavily from the way the Roman Empire "officiated". The majority of the rituals held by The Roman Catholic are all pagan influenced. Nothing can be termed as original. So we have a strong mixture of paganism turned into holiness by us mortals.

Some of these rituals including the processions have just had a small modification. These were copied from the Truimph that the victorious consul used to have when he came back to Rome to be publicly honoured and approved by all.

This despicable act of vandalism shows our medieval mentality.

Yes, I do condemn it as though not being religiously inclined in any way, it is a vital link in our beautiful heritage that strangely or perversely enough is not really appreciated by us Maltese as we approve foreign artificial trends but do not want to know about the wonderful heritage that we hold.

Sad Bananas

At Vittoriosa right now the climax is not a very nice one.A few weeks ago some St Dominic feast supporters lunched a CD which consists in insulting the other saint of the other band club with very bad words such as "sinjorina and other bad words! Curja rules says that if such a CD is launched the external feast will have to be suspended,but for now no action has been taken.People of Vittoriosa are hurt with this cd and right now tension is very high.Many think that the paint was thrown in an attempt to further raise tension and make people forget about the CD.

Mr Williams the flagpole accident does not enter in the picture and I hope that you don't have any hidden agendas ,knowing that you are a St Dominic party supporter!

"Hence all Feasts must be abolished,processions are to be restricted to around the particular Church parvis,and no outdoor celebrations must be held as clearly hardly any of the parishoners have any knowledge about what exactly they are celebrating.hear hear," the master emmy bezzina has spoken.

Dear vandals, you have succeeded in your aim of ruining Maltese heritage. Please know that you did no succeed in removing St Dominic from the saints' calendar. You only offended the Maltese people since that statue is Maltese national heritage. It does not belong to the Dominicans, it does not belong to Birgu, it does not belong to any one BUT to you (Mr vandal/s) and to all of us Maltese citizens.

such pagan thoughts and 'gibs' and 'karta pesta' loyalty has not been seen since roman times on this rock and yet social tools such as divorce are still seen as sins....pathetic...the church as an institution is distancing itself more and more each day with every press release.

yawn.

Maybe it was an attempt by someone to make it look like it was real blood coming out of the statue. Vittoriosa would have attracted record crowds for their feast, making incredible business!

@Jason Spiteri
It's not a matter of this is only a statue. This is an act of hate and vandalism and it should be taken very seriously. This is a hate crime and should be dealt accordingly. People should respect other peoples property but then I don't think you understand what I'm talking about.

Jason Spiteri

WHAT A COOL GUY YOU ARE!

This is not the first time that RED paint was thrown to this beautiful stone statue. At least a much awaited restoration will surely take place now! I ask...would this act be a reply to the accidental fall of the flagpole belonging to the other feast??? Girbin pls re-unite and forget these silly and obscene incidents....both feasts will get damaged!

Our Feasts do not demonstrate our Religious Belief or Catholic Culture - they demonstrate materialism and pique to the extreme, abusive rivalry between local Band Clubs,Hatred & Jealousy,dirt and nuisance to third parties,lack of respect to the people and visitors in general,and a business-minded section who capitalise with every feast,not to mention lack of love to one`s neighbours,disregard to those members of the community who may be at their last moments of human life,non-chalance to persons who may require rest and peace,bad example by the foul language used including blasphemy and the waste of money in useless fireworks and bombardments that respective feasts generate.Hence all Feasts must be abolished,processions are to be restricted to around the particular Church parvis,and no outdoor celebrations must be held as clearly hardly any of the parishoners have any knowledge about what exactly they are celebrating.So let us not make a fuss about what might be a Message that even the Deities are getting stiff bored with the ridiculous ways [ including BillBoards now ] we are supposed to be reminded about the virtuous lives led by predecessors in difficult times: we are just a people bent on abusing events!

IS OR ARE THIS/THESE PERSON/PERSONS INSANE !! SHAME ON YOU !

this is not a matter of being Roman Catholic or not.

corner statues of saints are part of the Malta's heritage.
the culprit should be heavily fined, and none of that" suspended sentence less than a slap on the wrist " nonsense .

Our festas are becoming a greater farce by the day in the name of our holy saints. Stop these stupidities.

This act of vandalism against this old statue of St. Dominic is more condemable when one considers that the city of Vittoriosa celebrates the annual feast of St. Dominic this week with the highlights next Sunday.

The irresponsible person or persons behind this act have not only vandalised the image of a saint but have also attacked the Catholic views of all of us especially in the city of Vittoriosa.

Chill out. It's only a statue!

I'd like to add that a few years ago, I attended one of the St Dominic marches in Birgu and whn they reached St Lawrence's Band club they were hurling insults at them and a fight broke out.

I think it's time that these famous marches will be stopped all over Malta at least for a trial period of three years. They are a sign of low mentality and they are truly shameful events.

Band clubs are not doing enough to minimize the incidents.

As this person will probably brag about this actor done in front of a friend . or friends.Posting a reward will help find this JERK. Band club post a reward.

Prosit to those who performed this act. I'm sure St Domenic is very proud of you. Keep up your devotion as true faithful Catholics.

To call you idiots, is an understatement.

Shame! hope the culprits are caught.