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Matt Cooper

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Matt Cooper: Quinn Country reveals that bankruptcy has not stripped the ex-billionaire of his ego

Seán Quinn’s behaviour – tears and all – in the documentary on RTÉ was evidence of his biggest asset and worst liability

Matt Cooper: Fifa’s dirty laundry includes a load of blatant World Cup greenwashing

The world football organiser claims the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is ‘a fully carbon-neutral event’, but there are arguments that the tournament may contribute up to 10 million tonnes of carbon emissions

Matt Cooper: Ronaldo spat raises questions over who has the bigger brand – superclubs or superstars

The Portuguese superstar is engaged in a war with Manchester United after an interview in which he claimed the club care more about marketing than sport. But the controversy suggests MUFC is no longer even at the top level of business management

Matt Cooper: Liverpool FC transfer rumours raise questions about club’s future

The football club was recently valued at £3.6 billion, but if FSG, its American owner, sells up, what will it mean for the team beloved of so many Irish fans?

Matt Cooper: Bono’s paradoxical life between the material and immaterial worlds

‘An artist is not a sacred soul because they make art,’ writes the U2 lead singer in an engaging memoir that is far more than the sum of its parts

Matt Cooper: Sunak’s cabinet of curiosities does not inspire hope for an end to the madness

Britain’s latest prime minister has picked familiar faces in his cabinet, but Ireland should hope that he seeks a new path on Brexit

Matt Cooper: Central Bank bets its house on mortgages staying better value than rent

The Central Bank must have calculated that, even with a bigger loan, house buyers might still be paying less out of their monthly income on mortgage repayments than they would on rent

British Politics

Matt Cooper: Tories going down with the sinking ship that is Brexit

The best Ireland can hope for in a Britain untethered from reality is a quiet deal on access to the EU, but we might have to wait

Matt Cooper: McDonald book row raises questions of how Sinn Féin in power will treat media

The party’s track record of litigiousness raises questions about how a SF government might influence, directly or indirectly, an ‘independent’ media

Matt Cooper: Nesbitt speech explains how our words matter in talking about Ireland’s future

The actor offered a thought-provoking take on the future of this island, pleading for the use of a different language which does not carry political connotations

Matt Cooper: Budget packs a political punch that could change the fortunes of the parties in power

While the government might get a boost in the polls, there’s still so much that can go wrong – mostly arising from circumstances outside its control

Matt Cooper: Why Tommy Tiernan’s heartfelt pleas for Africa are likely to go unanswered

There are few votes to be won in being generous internationally and a massive government commitment to alleviate hardship at home is why appeals for assistance to drought-stricken areas of Africa may have little effect

Matt Cooper: Contentious tax commission report will likely just join the others gathering dust

Recommendations that require tough and unpopular decisions are diluted or ignored at the best of times, never mind on our current wartime footing

Matt Cooper: The Swiss ski bootcamp and the sale of Siteserv

Robert Dix, who was central to the sales process of Siteserv to Denis O’Brien, took part in a bootcamp in Switzerland with O’Brien. While the Commission of Inquiry into the deal concluded no discussion about the deal had taken place, it found Dix’s evidence to be ‘false, misleading and untruthful’

Matt Cooper: Arcade Fire frontman faces serious allegations but can art be separated from the artist?

Some fans of the band seem to think that Win Butler has provided an adequate response to the accusations, but others are not convinced

Matt Cooper: More drama is as much about income as it is about entertainment value for RTÉ

The state broadcaster has announced more than 40 hours of original Irish drama in its autumn schedule – but how will it fare against the seemingly bottomless budgets of content behemoths like Netflix and Prime?

Matt Cooper: How Man Utd’s on-pitch travails could damage the club’s bottom line

Decay is setting in at the once-great Manchester United, with sponsorship deals slipping and a place in elite leagues no longer certain. But to stop the rot, any potential bidder for the club will have to fix more than the football

Matt Cooper: A genuinely iconic building gets a new and public-friendly lease of life

The former Central Bank on Dublin’s Dame Street, designed by the late Sam Stephenson, has been refurbished and renewed – and the skateboarders who flocked there in previous decades may even be welcomed back

Matt Cooper: Letter row raises question of whether we get ‘two for one’ when we elect a president

It is not unreasonable to ask if President Michael D Higgins’s wife Sabina is a proxy for views he knows he cannot express publicly

Matt Cooper: Will U2 hit the jackpot with a lucrative move to the Vegas stage?

With residencies in Las Vegas yielding potentially enormous rewards, U2's latest plan makes good business sense – but audiences are more likely to be treated to the old favourites than any new output