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Manwel Dimech: The Local OG Bad Boy Turned Patriotic Hero

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Malta might be a tiny island, but we’ve all had some sort of exposure to its long and turbulent history. From iconic events to notorious figures, these tiny islands have seen it all over the centuries. But while same names might be more familiar than others, not many people out there might know the true story behind some of history’s biggest names. Enter Manwel Dimech, one of our country’s greatest heroes. 

This OG was born and bred to live a rough life on the streets, committing crimes and getting in and out of prison a lot. What makes him different from all our other bad boys, though, is that while he was in prison, he actually did his utmost best to reform himself. 

Dimech was not only a fearless dude; he was also a social reformer, a poet, a novelist, a philosopher, a journalist, and everything we would wish for in a hero.

This fearless bad boy one-manned his way through a battle with the Church and the Colonialists. If anything, this man had the biggest pair of balls ever known to mankind. 

Pictured: Not Manwel Dimech

Manwel was the terminator of repression and ignorance on the island. Oh, and he was also born on Christmas day of 1860. Jesus and Chuck Norris, eat your hearts out.

This rascal committed his first crime when he was 13, but while in prison, he went on a journey of self-discovery (shout out to everyone who travels to Eastern countries to “find themselves”) where he unearthed his deep love for the arts and languages. Dimech went in to prison illiterate, but he ended up teaching himself Maltese, English, Italian and French.

He also murdered someone at the age of 17, but it was sort of an accident. 

It was not his intention as he was only trying to feed his family, but he was arrested again. When released, he was imprisoned again for forging counterfeit money to trade like Panini stickers, not to fool anyone or anything.

Come on Dimech, we’re trying to root for you here.

During his latest, very long stint in prison, Dimech had the misfortune of encountering the sadistic prison commissioner Marquis Barbaro. 

As we all know from every piece of fiction that’s ever been published, anyone who carries the title of Marquis is a sick deprived bastard, just like De Sade. This guy was a bit of a dickhole, tormenting the prisoners by way of torture, murder and abuse. 

When at 36 years of age this rowdy hunk finally got out of prison, Dimech started making giant waves all over the island by issuing a newspaper in Maltese, which was definitely not a common thing to do at the time since we were a British colony. 

Il-Bandiera tal-Maltin was throwing shade at the Brits and the Church more than a fucking cloudy day.

Dimech was also considered a very dangerous figure — he challenged political structures, encouraged women to fight for their rights, and roared for freedom and independence from our oppressors. 

This steamy moustachioed swain wanted education for the masses and a self-sufficient country, and he sure as hell tried his best to provide it for us. 

In 1911, after his return from touring Milan, Turin, Genoa and Montenegro, Dimech brought about a behemoth of change to this island — Ix-Xirka ta’ L-Imdawlin

This made every member of the clergy in Malta shit himself involuntarily as soon as the news came out. Of course the church did what the church does — they demonised and persecuted him, called him a heretic and accused him of trying to destroy the kingdom of God. Standard.

They tried to condemn Ix-Xirka and they even used the power of Christ to excommunicate Dimech, but Dimech didn’t really give any fucks.

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Taking the fight to an even bigger scale, Dimech renamed his league to Ix-Xirka tal-Maltin, fighting back while presumably hoisting his iron balls in a rucksack behind his back. 

Manwel was arrested at the start of the first World War, accused of being a German spy. Of course, this was all bullshit. Both the British and the Clergy wanted to get rid of this revolutionary, so he was deported to Egypt as an exile, living in concentration camps.

Oh, and he was arrested while he was teaching a class of young children, so there goes scarring children for life. 

The beautiful hero, suffering from bad health, was transferred to Alexandria, where he died alone, buried in an unmarked grave. It was not until the 60s that this beautiful soul was recognised as the hero he truly is.

Tag someone who’d love to read Dimech’s story!

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