Editing Tower block (section)

=====Ireland=====
[[File:Capital Dock, Dublin Docklands, June 2021.jpg|thumb|right|[[Capital Dock]], 22-story "mixed use" building in [[Dublin]], Ireland]]

; Republic of Ireland

The majority of residential high-rise buildings in the Republic of Ireland were concentrated in the suburb of [[Ballymun]], [[Dublin]]. The [[Ballymun Flats]] were built between 1966 and 1969: seven 15-story towers, nineteen 8-story blocks and ten 4-story blocks.<ref>{{cite news |title=Demolition of famous Dublin tower block |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0313/ballymun.html |publisher=RTÉ News |date=13 March 2005 |access-date=19 May 2010 }}</ref> These were the "seven towers" referred to in the [[U2]] song "Running to Stand Still".{{cn|date=October 2024}} They have since been demolished. 

Inner Dublin flat complexes, typically of four to five storeys include Sheriff Street (demolished), [[Fatima Mansions (housing)|Fatima Mansions]] (demolished and redeveloped), St Joseph's Gardens (demolished; replaced by Killarney Court flat complex), St Teresa's Gardens, Dolphin House, Liberty House, St Michael's Estate (eight storeys) and O'Devaney Gardens and a lot more mainly throughout the north and south inner city of Dublin. Suburban flat complexes were built exclusively on the northside of the city in [[Ballymun]], [[Coolock]] and [[Kilbarrack]]. These flats were badly affected by a heroin epidemic that hit working-class areas of Dublin in the 1980s and early 1990s.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Residential tower blocks were previously uncommon outside of Dublin, but during the era of the [[Celtic Tiger]] the largest cities such as Dublin, [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Limerick]] and [[Galway]] witnessed new large apartment building, although their heights have generally been restricted. Some large towns such as [[Navan]], [[Drogheda]], [[Dundalk]] and [[Mullingar]] have also witnessed the construction of many modern apartment blocks.

; Northern Ireland

Tower blocks in Northern Ireland were never built to the frequency as in cities on the island of [[Great Britain]], but taller high-rises are generally more common than in the Republic of Ireland. Most tower blocks and flat complexes are found in [[Belfast]], although many of these have been demolished since the 1990s and replaced with traditional [[Social housing|public housing units]]. The mid-rise Divis flats complex in west Belfast was built between 1968 and 1972. It was demolished in the early 1990s after the residents demanded new houses due to mounting problems with their flats. [[Divis Tower]], built separately in 1966, still stands, however; and in 2007 work began to convert the former British Army base at the top two floors into new dwellings. Divis Tower was for several decades Ireland's tallest residential building, having since being surpassed by the privately owned [[Obel Tower]] in the city centre. In the north of the city, the iconic seven-tower complex in the [[New Lodge, Belfast|New Lodge]] remains, although so too the problems that residents face, such as poor piping and limited sanitation. Farther north, the four tower blocks in [[Rathcoole (Belfast)|Rathcoole]] dominate the local skyline, while in south Belfast, the tower blocks in Seymour Hill, Belvoir and [[Finaghy]] remain standing.

Most of the aforementioned high-rise flats in the city were built by the [[Northern Ireland Housing Trust]] (NIHT) as part of overspill housing schemes, the first such development being the pair of point blocks in East Belfast's [[Cregagh]] estate. These eleven-story towers were completed in 1961 and were the first tall council housing blocks on the island of Ireland.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Glendinning|first1=Miles|last2=Muthesius|first2=Stefan|year=1994|title=Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland|publisher=Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art|isbn=9780300054446|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWuBQgAACAAJ|page=288}}</ref> The NIHT also designed the inner city Divis Flats complex. The six-to-eight-storey deck-access flats that comprised most of the Divis estate were of poor build quality and were all demolished by the early 1990s.{{sfnp|Glendinning|Muthesius|1994|page=367}} Similar slab blocks were built by the NIHT in East Belfast (Tullycarnet) and Derry's [[Bogside]] area, all four of which have been demolished.

[[Belfast Corporation]] constructed seven tower blocks on the former Victoria Barracks site in the New Lodge district. While the Corporation built some [[mid-rise]] flats as part of [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]] schemes (most notably the now demolished Unity Flats and the Weetabix Flats in the Shankill area), New Lodge was its only high-rise project in the inner city; there were three more in outlying areas of the city during the 1960s, two being in Mount Vernon in North Belfast and one being in the [[Clarawood]] estate, East Belfast. The [[Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast|Royal Hospital]] built three thirteen-story towers for use as staff accommodation, prominently located adjacent to the M2 Motorway at Broadway. Belfast City Hospital also constructed a high-rise slab block which since privatisation has been named Bradbury Court, formerly known as Erskine House. Queens University Belfast built several eleven storey towers at its Queens Elms student accommodation. Of the three sixteen-story point blocks of [[Larne]] Borough Council in the late 1960s, only one remains.<ref>Riverdale Flats, Larne (1) http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2313893</ref>