Divis Tower is a 20 storey 200-feet tower block on Divis Street in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was approved for construction by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust, and was one of their few properties built in Belfast's inner city. Completed in 1966 by Laing, Divis is 61 metres tall, and is currently the fourth highest residential building in Ireland. It has 95 flats. It is one of three high rises in Belfast that used to have an army observation post on its roof. The others were located on Broadway Tower and Templar House, in West and North Belfast respectively. Instead of arriving by lift, soldiers accessed the observation point by helicopter, which landed on the roof. The British army also used the top two floors for several decades and they were not accessible to residents.
Up until the early 1990's there was adjacent to this tower a deck-access complex of around 800 flats in various 6-8 storey blocks. Many of the blocks were connected by walkways, and this 'streets in the sky' development, called the Divis Flats, was of a similar design to Park Hill in Sheffield. Due to poor construction methods and their unpopularity this estate was demolished in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and replaced with terraced housing. Divis Tower was saved from demolition as it was popular with the mainly elderly residents. The point block received new external cladding and a new rooftop hut in 2008. The army had vacated the tower in 2005 and the top two floors were eventually brought back into civilian use and converted into flats. Unlike most tower blocks in Belfast, Divis Tower has a concierge on the ground floor, usually employing a resident.
The Divis Tower was a big part of the Troubles conflict, Which was a conflict surrounding about the ideologies of Irish republicanism and Ulster loyalism. The cause for the British Army observation post was because of paramilitary groups & political parties like the I.N.L.A , Provisional I.R.A and the I.R.S.P. And in August 14th 1969, 9 year old Patrick Rooney died due to the Royal Ulster Constabulary fired a Browning Machine Gun from a armoured car into the Flats.