The identity of a country is moulded by its language, flag and national anthem. These three components should be cherished, upheld and defended if we are to be called true citizens of our country of birth.

Last Sunday, I attended the international football match at Ta’ Qali Stadium between Malta and Scotland to lend my wholehearted support to my country. All in all, I must say, the support was quite good and the ‘South End Core’ group of Maltese supporters should be commended for their efforts to encourage and spur those present to give their most vociferous vocal support to our players.

However, I was disgusted at the way we treated our national anthem. The impression one gets is that only a few hundred sing with pride our beautiful anthem. The rest either do not know the lyrics or are too shy to render it. Worse still is when you come across someone next to you singing the anthem of one of the two countries which, for geographical and historical reasons, are closest to us.

The Scots all sang in unison and with pride, as do most supporters in other countries.

We should all have a sense of pride whenever we hear our national anthem being played. Unfortunately, we still lack this sense of national pride. I sincerely hope that, one day, in the not-too-distant future, we shall all rise and sing out loud our anthem as did our forefathers way back in 1945 as immortalised in Rużar Briffa’s poem Jum ir-Rebħ (Victory Day). That would truly be a victory for our national anthem.

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