This interview was first published in 2000

She is one of the country’s most high profile lawyers and has made as much of a name for herself as her father (who just happens to be the President of Malta). And although she has made her home in Mdina, at heart she is still a Hamruniża

I suppose we have all, at one time or another, built up a perception of someone based purely on their public persona. Then, when we meet them face-to-face, we are completely bowled over by the way they really are in person.
That, in a nutshell, is what happened to me when I met Dr Giannella Caruana Curran. I expected someone rather aloof, perhaps stand-offish. I certainly did not expect that, four hours later, we would still be nattering away like old friends, on anything and everything under the sun.
True, it does not take much for me to talk, but in Giannella, I had found a kindred spirit.

She had chosen the Xara Palace for lunch. “The Trattoria is what I call ‘my local’ where we come for a pizza or a plate of pasta in summer. In winter it is equally cosy. The elegant de Mondion restaurant, on the other hand, is perfect for a lovely romantic dinner.”

Although the restaurant does not open for lunch during the summer months, the owner Mrs Zammit Tabone very kindly made arrangements for us to sit on the rooftop terrace anyway, with food ordered from the Trattoria.

Giannella moved to Mdina four years ago, attracted by its sheer history. “It’s a beautiful jewel of a place. Its buildings, its winding roads; it’s unique. I love the coolness of Mdina – and by that I don’t mean it’s ‘cool’ as in hip!” She bursts into laughter. Giannella, I was to learn, simply loves to laugh. She has one of those rich, throaty laughs which is immediately infectious and which always seems to be bubbling around the edges
of her voice. She tells me more about Mdina:

“You don’t hear the neighbours, yet you don’t feel alone. People might think that Mdina is like a ghost town, that it’s eerie or spooky. But it’s not at all. As you to have to walk in, you meet people all the time, everyone has a more relaxed attitude and you stop and talk.

Giannella has been a lawyer since 1981. It was taken for granted that she would go on to tertiary education. “There was no question about it, just as you don’t question going to secondary school. It was in built into us as a matter of fact, by both my parents. Papà never interfered in our choice of profession but as we always had lunch together, we grew up hearing his stories about court. Ir-rakkonti! And my mother would always give her opinion as a layman.”

Although I had assumed that Giannella’s biggest influence was her father, the way she speaks of her mother points to a considerable maternal influence. “Mother is a very practical person, very intuitive, reads between the lines, very sensitive. I think I’m very much a mixture of both my parents. The way I enjoy being with people comes from Papà – I love socialising.”

She admits to enjoying the campaigning side of politics, but would never consider running for office: the idea doesn’t even remotely appeal to her. “I’m easily hurt. I’m not so tough-skinned. I don’t enjoy being in the limelight, I prefer being behind the scenes.”

Coming from someone who is so high profile, this seems rather surprising, but she points out that this was not the reason she chose criminal law. So what was it that drew her to this branch of the legal profession?
“You’re dealing with humanity; with the character of a person as well as their liberty. There’s a lot of responsibility and a lot of tension as well. You’re trying to understand the ‘why’ of human behaviour and that is so enthralling; more interesting than talking about money or buildings.”

Having said that, Giannella says that while she enjoys the preparatory work, she looks equally forward to the trial. “I enjoy arguing” she says openly with her insuppressible laugh. “Actually we all do – lunch time was always quite exciting at home. My mother wins most of the time I tell you – she’s the most persuasive.”

Our first course was a fresh salad, perfect for that very hot day. I relented for once and joined Giannella in her choice of wine, a medium dry white Chateau Saint-Florin.

Turning to the law courts, Giannella does not agree that there is any chauvinism. What does happen, she feels, is that the male lawyers are friendlier towards each other because of the ‘old boy’ network. But there is no difference between the sexes in those hallowed corridors: “I’m a lawyer” she states simply.

“I think a woman has advantages, especially if she has both intelligence and intuition as well. Men are not very good at intuition – that gives us a plus. In a male-dominated world, it helps to be a woman, don’t you find it so?”

She looks at me inquiringly. I wriggled out of that one and volleyed the question back to her. “Well, I don’t negate my femininity. There are women in certain professions who try to take on masculine attributes and I really don’t see why” she says. “Our femininity is a plus not a minus. You don’t remove it. People will probably stop and listen more to a woman, mhux hekk?” giving me a conspiratorial glance, she laughs again.

She feels what worked against her when she first started to practice law was her age rather than her gender. “For many people I was just a child, especially since I looked young for my age. I actually used to wear specs to look older! When Papà stopped and I took over his cases, I was still young. I defended my first murder trial when I was only 29”.

Giannella and Dr Emmanuel Mallia joined forces when she took over Prof deMarco’s legal practice, so it was inevitable that she would specialise in the area of criminal law. She cannot imagine herself working in family law. “I don’t have the patience for it. I can’t stand people being petty, squabbling (jimpikaw) over every little thing. When I see parents in a separation case using the children as a weapon against each other – I don’t have time for that. It seems to bring out the worst in their characters. I’m not talking about a battered woman or a parent fighting for his/her children. It’s the hotly contested cases that make them become such bitter people!”

I phrased my next question carefully: “You have come across some tough cases…
“Tough cases and tough people” she interjects.
Has this changed you in any way?
“What it has taught me is first, how one can’t pre-judge a person just on his appearance. And secondly, that there is good in everyone. It is very, very rare not to find some good in somebody. And you try and go behind the crime; you try to see the person behind it. And often you find the good.”

It amazes me that she has not lost her faith in human nature.
“Anzi! There’s always such a story behind each case.” Her expression takes on a pensive look as she shakes her head and reflects on past cases.
What about the hefty fees for which their firm is so notorious?

“I really don’t think they are hefty. Honestly, I don’t know where that came from. Is it a rumour? Have you ever asked a client of mine if he felt that he was over-charged? Ask one of my clients. I don’t think they will feel that for the work, time and dedication we put into their case we charge too much. But everything is relative in life.”

This is very much an extended family – apart from being very close to her parents, Giannella’s two teenage sons are always at their grandparents’ house. With the eternal question being whether a woman can really ‘have it all’, her rejoinder is: “Actually, can anyone have it all…? I get annoyed when people ask me how I manage with the children. A man in a profession is never asked that. They’re his duty too. It’s parenting not mothering. Sometimes I’m made to feel guilty because I’m pursuing my career. Whereas a man is admired and not asked about he manages. This is what is wrong – the woman is made to feel guilt for not being there all the time, not the man.”

She quickly dismisses the idea that someone with a career and a family is some kind of super woman: “I have a super mother you mean! She is a saint, and has had enough patience with all of us to last more than one lifetime. My mother is the one who made it all possible. She made us all study – people think that Papà is the one who pushed us. She spoiled us so completely that when I got married, I didn’t know how to boil an egg and I phoned her to ask: ‘when do I throw the egg in, when it’s boiling?’ (much laughter) ‘The three minutes start from when?’ (recalling my own early culinary disasters, I was laughing too).

“Because we were studying, we didn’t do anything, not even our beds. I feel very lacking when compared to her as a mother. And that’s why I’m lucky, because like she did with me, she is doing with my children. My son calls her ‘ma-na’ because she is their grandmother but also another Mamà. They adore her. My eldest son used to send her Valentine’s cards signed ‘from your mysterious lover’ for I don’t know how long!”

Giannella Caruana Curran was voted one of Malta’s sexiest ladies (she actually came a very close second to Miriam Dalli). “It was fun, it was flattering at my age! There was a lot of teasing. One colleague jokingly offered to be my canvasser. I told my children: ‘Qed taraw hu, il-Mamà!’ (‘You see, how well your mother did’). Of course, then my son started calling me a ‘golden oldie’.”

In her own words, Giannella is ‘stubborn, persistent, a pain, a pest.’ But she is also an optimist and basically a happy person. It shows in her constant laughter and in her shining eyes.
“I’m an emotional person. I enjoy laughing and I do cry as well. I have a temper.” (Do you throw things, bang the table, swear?)

“No, I don’t swear” she replies, suddenly very serious. “I have the DeMarco temper. I can’t stand stupidity. In the sense of lack of manners. What I call injoranti pruzuntuzi (presumptuous ignorance). I can’t take them. And I’m becoming less tolerant as I get older. You know, the type who just mow over you.”

Giannella feels very strongly about what she sees as a general lack of respect and gratitude. “As a country we have a very short memory; we’re ungrateful to the people who have dedicated themselves to Malta. As soon as someone is not in power, people forget who he is. We don’t even keep him alive in our history books. It’s as if they’ve never been. Do the young ones know them? Even when they grow old, we forget them. Don’t you feel that an ex-Prime Minster, for example, should always be treated with respect?

Here is where the DeMarco trait comes out strongest in Giannella; a certain importance attached to grace and manners which is rapidly disappearing. It is obviously a sore point with her as she looks around and sees so many people who are uncouth and coarse, and what is worse, aren’t even aware that there is another way to be.

Speaking to her, she put me in mind of another era, and in fact, she speaks with admiration about the Knights of Malta (“the best thing that could have happened to us”) who left Malta with such a heritage.
Out on that covered terrace, with a view of Mdina and Rabat all around us, the atmosphere was one of calm and peace, and thoughts of the office were far away. Our second course arrived: fettucine à la carbonara for Giannella and bolognese for myself.

Of course I’m completely envious because she can eat what she likes: Giannella is tiny. Her petite frame is that of a young girl and (get this) she stopped smoking, gained 10 kilos and is still slender (good job I don’t smoke). Her problem is that she finds it hard to put on weight. (Come on now, this is really unfair). “After the two boys I weighed six and a half stone, and it is really ugly to be too thin. When everyone tells you ‘Ma, how thin you are!’ it doesn’t sound like a compliment at all. I was called Gandhi.”

Soon after her father was made President, the whole family had appeared on Pjazza 3. What had particularly struck me was the almost awe-struck way in which Giannella spoke of her father and she immediately agrees.

“You have to understand that he came from a humble family. But they believed in study. My Nanna’s words were always ‘studja, studja, studja‘. She was the daughter of Sicilian immigrants and always believed in the power of education to give you independence and your place in life. Papà still studies till today. This, in him, I admire. With hard work and study he made it. And without having a chip on his shoulder about it. Anzi! He’s not just clever, he’s also very cultured and has a lot of humanity. Of course, this is not the most objective of views…My father taught us never to hate anyone. To forgive, and yet to always bear in mind the limitations of that person (sa fejn jista’ jasal).”

Being the daughter of someone in the limelight has its advantages as Giannella freely admits, but it also has its duties and restrictions. “One always has to be very careful because whatever one does will reflect on him. People won’t say ‘Giannella’, it’s Guido deMarco’s daughter. So I feel this weight.”

So did you ever wish he were just plain Guido ‘Borg’? She laughs at this: “I’m so proud of him that thinking of him as a non-entity is very difficult. But I can’t say it hasn’t made me feel always more responsible and careful because of his position.”

But just as she is fulsome with her praise about her father, Giannella is the same about her mother: “She is our fighter, our champion – she is always there. She is the backbone, the pillar and also the maypole of our family. We all circle around her!”

Our views concurred on various things. Such as people who are perpetually gloomy and whose ‘bad vibes’ seem to infect everyone else. How depressing, we agreed, when someone constantly radiates a negative aura. “I feel they’re oppressing me, as if they have a black cloud”, is how Giannella puts it and I couldn’t have agreed more.

“I pray a lot” she tells me unexpectedly. “I feel the need of prayer when I’m down or when I’m going through something difficult and even when I’m happy! I’m no saint, far from it. But I feel the need to talk to Our Lady and Jesus” she adds, almost shyly. “And to my grandfather. He is the only man in my life who never said I was wrong. Dejjem tani ragun! He would do anything for me!”

Between her father’s flowery endearments (“I’m his tezor“), her grandfather for whom she could do no wrong and her mother who never allowed them to lift a finger, Giannella is by admission, incredibly spoiled. And although she appears so graceful, she says she is, in fact, clumsy, constantly walking into furniture and dropping things.

A very private person, she does not talk to many people about her feelings. As for trust? “Not with my inner emotions. That takes time. I don’t show people they’ve hurt me. I’m too proud. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction. My father also taught us never to be afraid; never to succumb to bullies, because that is where they gain their power over you. You may feel it but don’t show it. Although you feel the fear, always go through the main door, never go through the side door in life.”

So was she scared during her first trial? “Very much! I’m still scared to this day. I still feel the tension. I say ‘Madonna Santa, I hope I do it right.’ I get my strength from being prepared. Otherwise I would feel irresponsible.”

As we got up to leave, I admired her necklace and she immediately told me where I could buy one from. You know, like you would with one of your girlfriends. That’s Giannella.