Divis Tower

54°36′00″N 5°56′32″W / 54.6000°N 5.9422°W / 54.6000; -5.9422

Divis Tower, Belfast, 2004
The Divis Flats in July 1992

Divis Tower is a 19-floor, 200-foot (61 m) tall tower in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is located in Divis Street, which is the lower section of the Falls Road. It is currently the fifteenth-tallest building in Belfast.

History

The tower was built in 1966 as part of the now-demolished Divis Flats complex, which comprised twelve eight-storey blocks of terraces and flats, named after the nearby Divis Mountain. The tower, a vertical complex of 96 flats housing approximately 110 residents, was designed by architect Frank Robertson for the Northern Ireland Housing Trust.[1] The site on which the Tower stands was previously the location 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 approximately £11,000. A television documentary has been made about the tower.[2]

The Troubles

British Army observation post

In response to Provisional IRA and INLA 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.[3]

Patrick Rooney and Emmanuel McClarnon shootings

Divis Tower was a flashpoint area during the height of the Troubles. A stronghold of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and Irish National Liberation Army, the building was referred to as the "Planet of the Irps" (in reference to the film Planet of the Apes; IRSP supporters are referred to as "Irps")[4][5]

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 a Shorland armoured car into the flats.[6] The RUC claimed that it was coming under sniper attack from the tower at the time. Rooney's death occurred 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".[7]

On 12 May 1981, an Army sniper killed INLA member Emmanuel McClarnon from the top of Divis Tower, on the night that Francis Hughes died on hunger strike.[8]

INLA 1982 bombing

Main article: 1982 Divis Flats bombing

In September 1982, an INLA unit detonated a bomb hidden in a drainpipe along a balcony, killing British soldier Kevin Waller, who was aged 20, and two boys, Stephen Bennet (14) and Kevin Valliday (12); three other civilians and another British soldier were injured in the blast.[9]

Dismantling of the post

Following the IRA's statement that it was ending its armed campaign, the Army decided to dismantle the observation post, dubbed a 'spy' post by Sinn Féin. Removal of the observation post commenced on 2 August 2005.[10] In 2009, the top two floors of the tower were reinstated as residential properties. As part of a £1.1 million refurbishment programme by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, eight extra flats were provided.[3]

Both Divis Tower and the former Divis Flats have featured in multiple works of popular culture.

In films

In the film '71, new recruits to the British Army, who are deployed in Belfast, are told never to enter Divis Flats. However, when a father and daughter find the protagonist lying unconscious in the street, injured by bomb shrapnel, they carry him to their home in the building and tend to his wounds. Only then do they realise he is a soldier, which presents problems for all three of them.

In photography

Divis Flats and Divis Tower feature in numerous photographs of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.[1]

In television

Divis Tower was featured in the BBC Northern Ireland sitcom Give My Head Peace. The characters of Da, Cal, Ma, and for a while Dympna and Emer, all nationalists, lived in "Flat 47A, Divis Tower".[11]

As the home of Jean McConville Divis Flats is a recurring setting in the TV series Say Nothing. The series details her murder and follows the activities of Irish Republican Dolours Price[12]

In books

Divis Tower and the surrounding residential areas feature prominently in Patrick Radden Keefe's 2018 book Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, a book about the murder of Jean McConville during The Troubles. [13]

It is also featured in Michael Magee's book 'Close to Home' published in 2023.

References

  1. ^ a b "A towering mistake?". Belfast Telegraph. Belfast. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2010.
  2. ^ "Divis Flats Belfast". Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Former Army post at Divis Tower gets £1m transformation". Belfast Telegraph. Belfast. 20 January 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  4. ^ "Preventing a return to conflict: A discussion by ex-combatants Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine," compiled by Michael Hall, Island Publications, August 2009
  5. ^ The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers' Party, Brian Hanley and Scott Millar, Penguin Books, ISBN 1-84488-120-2 p. 290
  6. ^ Sutton, Malcolm (2013). "An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1969". Conflict Archive on the Internet, University of Ulster. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  7. ^ Scarman, Justice (1972). "Violence and Civil Disturbances in Northern Ireland in 1969 – Report of Tribunal of Inquiry [3.7 (4)]". Conflict Archive on the Internet, University of Ulster. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  8. ^ Sutton, Malcolm (2013). "An Index of Deaths from the Conflict in Ireland 1981". Conflict Archive on the Internet, University of Ulster. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  9. ^ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  10. ^ "Army begins removing Divis post". London: BBC News. 2 August 2005. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  11. ^ Give My Head Peace, IMDb, retrieved 11 September 2019
  12. ^ Say Nothing, IMDb, retrieved 11 September 2019
  13. ^ Radden Keefe, Patrick (2018). Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland. New York: William Collins. ISBN 9780345802842.