The Maltese word for the annual charity event held during the festive season is Strina, not Istrina.
Many slipshod people have failed to notice that the prosthetic ‘i’ is simply a euphonic vowel which is added to the word only when it follows the definite article: L-Istrina. Even Għal Istrina is morphologically wrong - it should be Għall-Istrina.
By the way, The Times and The Sunday Times, to maintain their high long-standing linguistic standards, should also employ a language expert to ensure that any text appearing in Maltese (and for that matter in other language) is spelt correctly. In the last issue of the The Sunday Times (December 19, p. 8) we read: ‘Il-flus ma jaqawx f’ħalqek, tafx’. It should have read: ‘Il-flus ma jaqgħux f’ħalqek, tafx’.