The Malta Independent 6 July 2025, Sunday
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Concert Cancellation

Malta Independent Monday, 9 October 2006, 00:00 Last update: about 12 years ago

I noted in your newspaper that there was to be an Irish folk music concert last Thursday at the Vilhena Palace, Mdina. Having previously seen a notice to the effect that there was to be a workshop/seminar with these same folk in the university in the afternoon, my wife and I had to decide which of these events to attend.

Eventually, we voted for the concert in the evening.

Alas! Bad choice!

We got to Mdina to find that the event had been cancelled because of a little light rain. What a pity. What a way to “build bridges between cultures”, as the Irish president was quoted in your newspaper (TMID, 6 October). It never crossed my mind that the concert was going to be in the open air. Why should it? It rains in Malta in October.

Who decided that an open-air venue was suitable? Assuming it was suitable, what did a bit of rain matter, anyway? The Irish know about rain. I know this for a fact, being Irish. (Well, half-Irish. The other half is Welsh and believe me, the Welsh know about rain, too).

I hope nobody turns around and tells me that the cancellation was broadcast on the radio or TVM. Trust me on this:- those people seriously interested in Irish folk music are unlikely to understand too much Maltese.

Actually, this brings another point to the surface. When are the Maltese authorities going to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 20th century (I know, I know) and provide a radio station and TV station that broadcast in English?

Lionel Coates

St Julian’s

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