MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
Nicosia Beyond Barriers: Voices from a Divided City
Potent visions of unity in diversity from Cypriot capital

THE Cypriot capital Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 4,500 years and it is first mentioned in a clay tablet dating back to 672BC in the era of its Assyrian ruler, King Esarhaddon.
On the edge of Europe and Africa, its location on the trade routes crisscrossing the Mediterranean have given it a unique ethnography.
Since the murderous Turkish invasion in 1974 — triggered by the Greek military junta’s coup ousting president Makarios III — and the ethnic cleansing that followed on both sides, the two parts of the island had been hermetically isolated until 2003, when three crossing points were established.
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