Somewhere in Dublin below the noise & din, but above the noise & hurt you can find “The Wall.” To a passerby that may have spent the last forty years in a coma, “The Wall” probably looks like the ramblings of a crystal meth addict, a physical graffiti (remember them?) artist having an epileptic fit, but for those in the know, those who haven’t lived in a cave or haven’t had SOI deleted from their cell phones, “The Wall” is our Mecca and now it looks like it may be preserved for the moment.

Plans to demolish the famed Windmill Studios have long been in the works, but it now looks like “The Wall” will be salvaged. What will become of “It”, nobody knows at this point.

“The Wall,”… it’s not broke, but you can see the cracks, but that’s part of its allure to U2 fans and why it must remain in tact. The parallels of The Wall & U2 run perpendicular to the thinking of those that want to tear it down. Both, The Wall & U2 have:

* long been staples of Dublin,

* both are old and breaking down,

*Both have ramblings that sometimes take years to decipher,

But most importantly, both are a visual reminder of what was and what can be. How many young Irish men or women have passed The Wall over the past 30 years or so and not thought about pushing themselves to their limits to break out of Ireland, like U2 in search of a better life…it has to be 2 or 3, right?

China has the Great Wall, Pink Floyd fans have Another Brick in the Wall, even Berlin had a Wall, but The Wall at Windmill Studios is OUR WALL! Not only have millions scaled these and other city walls just to be with it, see it, touch it, write on it, cry on it or lean on it for support, it has been our strength, it has cemented U2’s legacy, literally & figuratively. Where some see just a wall, U2 fans see their past and dream of their future. Bono may have been on the inside when they pulled the four walls down, but where are they going to be when and if this wall comes crashing down?

So, being the astute historian that I am, I will speak on behalf of U2 and in the immortal words of President George Washington when he visited Germany and bravely told Russia’s President Putin so succinctly….”Mr. Putin….DON’T TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!” 😉

Another day for U2 wall: http://u-2.im/179cuNv