An Irish Music Hall of Fame where U2 is featured, would work far better than a U2 visitor center, especially long term.
Nah, Wons. A U2 visitor centre absolutely could and would work, just not the oversized, brutalist design for which they obtained planning permission. I have lived in Dublin all my life, first met U2 (as a mid teenager) in the summer of 1979, have followed their career ever since and pass by their studio on Hanover Quay most days. So I am more familiar with this terrain than most. They absolutely could have a hugely successful visitor centre without doing much to the property they already own there. They bought, in the aftermath of Ireland's property and banking mega crash (2007-2012) the warehouse space that lies between their studio and developer Harry Crosbie's home. Crosbie went bust in the crash and the National Asset Management Agency, Ireland's so-called 'bad bank', a state agency that took on the debt and assets of developers in the wake of the crash, quietly sold off Crosbie's warehouse space to U2 for a pittance - €400,000, which even someone like me would have happily paid for it had the transaction been conducted on the open market.
So U2 have their fully functioning studio and they have the large garage warehouse attached to it - which is ripe for redevelopment. No need to demolish the lot and start from scratch (though that is probably what will happen in the long term). A U2 visitor centre on Hanover Quay would not have the same pulling power as the Guinness Storehouse (Ireland's most popular visitor destination) two and a half miles west in Dublin 8, but it would certainly be a big draw.