The Divis Flats in West Belfast were more than a housing complex. They became a marker of the political and social pressures that shaped Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Designed as modernist high-rise living in the late 1960s, the estate quickly became associated with poor construction, heavy policing and the daily presence of the British Army. For residents, the watchtowers, checkpoints and fortified entrances shaped how they moved, spoke and understood their own area.

In the summer of 1986, photographer Andrew Moore travelled to Belfast to document both the conflict and the everyday routines that continued in spite of it. Working with his well-worn Leica M2, he spent time in West Belfast, speaking with residents and trying to understand how people maintained a sense of normality in a place so heavily defined by control and surveillance.

“The Divis Flats and estate were being demolished at the time,” Moore recalls. “But they were still full of life. Crossing the bridge from the city centre felt like stepping into another space entirely, where the pace changed and you didn’t quite know what you were walking into. There was a striking contrast between the history of violence in the flats and the energy and optimism of the children who lived there.”

Moore’s photographs hold that contrast. They show the streets, stairwells and open land around Divis not only as sites tied to the Troubles but as places where families built routines, friendships formed and young people carved out moments of escape. His work records a community living through uncertainty while still finding its own forms of resilience and connection.