Former U2 accountant Ossie Kilkenny loses family home due to 2m arrears

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/former-u2-accountant-ossie-kilkenny-loses-killiney-home-after-racking-up-21m-arrears/a1550051938.html

Slightly misleading headline as he can still stay in the house for up to a year.

So whats the plan, stay in the house for another year and then kill himself?

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/former-u2-accountant-ossie-kilkenny-loses-killiney-home-after-racking-up-21m-arrears/a1550051938.html

Slightly misleading headline as he can still stay in the house for up to a year.

Not misleading at all. This is routine in such matters. Kilkenny's lawyers' job was to negotiate an orderly resolution to the case. Bear in mind that the debt is owed to Pepper, a vulture lender that typically charges interest rates twice the prevailing pillar bank rates. Kilkenny would have resorted to a loan from Pepper only because none was available from regular lenders.
In other news: "Man who failed in bid to sue U2 for €12m fined over hospital disturbance"
https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2024/06/24/man-who-failed-in-bid-to-sue-u2-for-12m-fined-over-hospital-disturbance/

And in other news: "U2′s visitor centre planning permission expires"
"The expiry of a five-year planning permission for U2′s planned visitor centre in Dublin’s docklands means that it is back to square one for the group. And it’s not the first U2 construction super project that has failed to get off the ground. Remember the plans for the U2 Tower on the corner of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and Britain Quay where the Capital Dock apartment building now stands. What would have been the tallest building in Ireland, with a studio for the band on the roof, went through several design iterations, prompting controversy at every turn.
"Then there was the dramatic Norman Foster-designed expansion of the Clarence Hotel, which was co-owned by Bono and The Edge at the time. It was due to be topped off by a vast glass atrium on the roof. That planning permission expired in 2013.
"More than 20 years on from their grand plans for a docklands tower, there’s still no U2-inspired line on the horizon."
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2024/06/09/overheard-developer-paddy-kelly-suffers-again-this-time-with-the-rtbs-maximum-60000-rent-arrears-bill/

a U2 'visitor center' in Dublin?  Who the fuck in demented U2 World thinks that's a good idea?!?

The U2 visitor centre’s centrepiece will be a massive hologram of Bono performing a miracle.

The U2 visitor centre’s centrepiece will be a massive hologram of Bono performing a miracle.

As long as he’s not performing The Miracle…

An Irish Music Hall of Fame where U2 is featured, would work far better than a U2 visitor center, especially long term.

Quote from: walktothewater on June 25, 2024, 01:20:08 PM

The U2 visitor centre’s centrepiece will be a massive hologram of Bono performing a miracle.

As long as he’s not performing The Miracle…

 

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.

Quote from: wons on June 25, 2024, 04:27:13 PM

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.

I'd visit just to meet you. Sit there and wait for you to drive by everyday. I already know most everything about U2. What I've missed you would tell me. Sadly, on a bed of nails I always wait. 

Day-Vid appointed to meet-and-greet at U2 visitor information centre

Quote from: wons on June 25, 2024, 04:27:13 PM

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.

Just because it was a good real estate deal doesn’t mean it’s a good use of the space, business-wise.

In fact, it’s a terrible idea and wons is 100% correct.  It would be an Irish national joke and likely close within a few years, unless B&E insisted on keeping it open because it was cheap to operate and necessary to save face.

Quote from: Mr Bourke on June 25, 2024, 08:16:59 PM

Quote from: wons on June 25, 2024, 04:27:13 PM

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.

Just because it was a good real estate deal doesn’t mean it’s a good use of the space, business-wise.

In fact, it’s a terrible idea and wons is 100% correct.  It would be an Irish national joke and likely close within a few years, unless B&E insisted on keeping it open because it was cheap to operate and necessary to save face.

Please elaborate. Hint: take a look at visitor attraction numbers in Ireland, and compare them with the modest projection included in the U2 visitor centre planning permission proposal. If U2 - who are obsessed with their legacy and who are currently busy accumulating archive material with such intensity that a few months ago their emissaries reached out to me, entirely peripheral to the story as I am (though I have recordings from the early days that no one else has) - calculated that the proposed brutalist monstrosity at Hanover Quay was viable with 360,000 visitors a year (the Guinness Storehouse gets one and a half million paying visitors a year, the Book of Kells in Trinity College gets a quarter of a million, Dublin Zoo gets 600,000, etc, etc), a scaled-back project would be a no-brainer. You seem not to be familiar with Dublin, or understand visitor attractions. It would not matter that "Bono is a pox" graffiti could be seen in the environs of a U2 visitor centre, or that Irish people, to the extent that they are not entirely indifferent to U2 at this point, are mostly mildly hostile towards them because of the tax avoidance and other matters. What matters is that Dublin is flooded with tourists, to the point that many natives such as me simply avoid the city centre during peak season. They're the market for a U2 centre.

Quote from: SlyDanner on June 26, 2024, 01:16:24 AM

Quote from: Mr Bourke on June 25, 2024, 08:16:59 PM

Quote from: wons on June 25, 2024, 04:27:13 PM

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.

Just because it was a good real estate deal doesn’t mean it’s a good use of the space, business-wise.

In fact, it’s a terrible idea and wons is 100% correct.  It would be an Irish national joke and likely close within a few years, unless B&E insisted on keeping it open because it was cheap to operate and necessary to save face.

Please elaborate. Hint: take a look at visitor attraction numbers in Ireland, and compare them with the modest projection included in the U2 visitor centre planning permission proposal. If U2 - who are obsessed with their legacy and who are currently busy accumulating archive material with such intensity that a few months ago their emissaries reached out to me, entirely peripheral to the story as I am (though I have recordings from the early days that no one else has) - calculated that the proposed brutalist monstrosity at Hanover Quay was viable with 360,000 visitors a year (the Guinness Storehouse gets one and a half million paying visitors a year, the Book of Kells in Trinity College gets a quarter of a million, Dublin Zoo gets 600,000, etc, etc), a scaled-back project would be a no-brainer. You seem not to be familiar with Dublin, or understand visitor attractions. It would not matter that "Bono is a pox" graffiti could be seen in the environs of a U2 visitor centre, or that Irish people, to the extent that they are not entirely indifferent to U2 at this point, are mostly mildly hostile towards them because of the tax avoidance and other matters. What matters is that Dublin is flooded with tourists, to the point that many natives such as me simply avoid the city centre during peak season. They're the market for a U2 centre.

I must say it's exciting to be this close to someone so close to the centre of power.