I sincerely apologise to Arnold Cassola and Silvio Aliffi, authors of the informative book Malta-Pachino: una storia in comune (Morrone Editore, Siracusa 2014), who were not mentioned in my short article entitled ‘The Maltese colonisation of Pachino, Sicily’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, February 28) despite the fact that their study was greatly utilised in my article.

Due to an oversight on my part the authors of the book were not refe­renced in the text. I clumsily did not thank the authors, nor mention them in the body of the text. I express my regret for this and acknowledge that my article contained much of the exciting and comprehensive work conducted by Cassola and Aliffi, from which I drew numerous reports, historical theories and various documentary references.

I apologise for having contributed to this unpleasant situation and had no intention of appropriating other people’s research. I extend my apologies also to The Sunday Times of Malta and to its readers.