Question
10 years ago we planted cuttings of english ivy from my parents house along a 60' long, 20' high concrete wall.  It is also planted around the sides so the sun hits all spots thoughout the season (mostly faces north/northwest).  It adheres to everything at my parents house, concrete, siding, wood, etc. but will not adhere to our concrete wall.  We bolted chicken wire to the concrete and weaved the ivy through it...worked real well until the chicken wire broke and now it's all fallen to the ground.  Seems like the only place it was adhereing to was a few spots where the wood forms were not covered by the concrete.  I think there must have been some kind of oil on the forms when this wall was poured and that's why the ivy won't take to the wall.  Since it's growing everywhere at my parents, and seems to grow and climb everywhere else, I thought there must be something I can wash this wall with or cover the wall with (paint) to get this ivy to start attaching itself to this wall.  Any suggestions please?  Thank you for you time and advise.  

Answer
Interesting - I'm usually asked how to STOP it from attaching to walls (there is a spray/chemical that you can paint on the wall to impede the sucker growth).  It seems to like wood and brick, best.  I guess that plain concrete is not to it's liking.
 
The aesthetic appeal of brickwork covered in ivy cannot be denied. The slightly crumbling brickwork set behind the green shoots of ivy provide many buildings with an idyllic character and really does remind you of "Old World Europe".

Without continuous maintenance, however, it can grow out of control, becoming ragged, overgrown, and wild looking.

Pruning this fast-growing plant is necessary in order to keep it away from wooden house parts that you want to KEEP (like window frames, roof eaves, siding, etc.) or else it can ruin finishes or may work its way into the house itself, if it finds or makes a gap in the woodwork.

Ivy/Boston Ivy/Clematis, etc. does not cause brick mortar to crumble, unless that mortar if it already unsound. It does not harm fired, clay bricks or sound concrete blocks.    

To your problem: how to keep it attached to a concrete wall.  The chicken wire was a good idea, but Ivy in the wind is a lot heavier than it looks (as you've found out the hard way). I have designed metal-frame trellis structures for commercial applications, but maybe for a house, a simple heavy-duty wood-frame trellis bolted directly to the wall would work.  Make it big (minimum 2" stock) and be sure to use galvanized parts.  The grid should probably be no larger than about 2 ft x 2 ft.  

If you think that wood may look too "chunky", make it out of galvanized pipe, or for a bit of flair, try copper plumbing pipe (Caution: this WILL discolor the concrete with green stains!! - but you may like this look, too)

Sorry, I don't know of any "attaching" ivy love-potion.

Hope it helps.