Divis Flats
Coordinates: 54°36′00″N 5°56′32″W / 54.6000°N 5.9422°W
Divis Tower is a 20-floor, 200-foot (61 m) tall tower in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Built in 1966 as part of the now-demolished Divis Flats complex, which comprised twelve 8-story blocks of terraces and flats, is named after the nearby Divis Mountain. The tower, a vertical complex of 850 flats, housing 2,400 residents, was designed by architect Frank Robertson for the Northern Ireland Housing Trust. The site on which Divis Tower stands was previously the site of the Sir Charles Lanyon designed Falls Road Methodist Church which opened in 1854 and closed in 1966. The site was sold to Belfast Corporation for circa £11,000.
Divis Tower rises near the interface between Falls Road and Shankill Road. It is currently the sixth tallest building in Belfast.
In response to Provisional IRA activity in the area, the British Army constructed an observation post on the roof in the 1970s and occupied the top two floors of the building. At the height of the Troubles, the Army was only able to access the post by helicopter.
Divis Tower was a flashpoint area during the height of the Troubles. Nine-year-old Patrick Rooney, the first child killed in the Troubles, was killed in the tower during the Northern Ireland riots of August 1969, when the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) fired a Browning machine gun from its Shorland armoured car into the flats. The RUC claimed that it was coming under sniper attack from the tower at the time. Patrick Rooney's death took place during a day of street violence in the area. Chairman of the enquiry into the riots, Mr Justice Scarman, found the use of the Browning machine gun "wholly unjustifiable".
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