The Last Post Matt Cooper: Chelsea’s new owners playing a risky game in stockpiling unproven talentThe club’s deep-pocketed owners see the enormous outlay on new players as capital investment, but if Chelsea fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League, then players may well have to be sold to recover the cost
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Free GP care proposal raises issues of practicality over costThe price of extending free doctor visits to all citizens is estimated at €880 million a year, but there are bigger questions around GP shortages, pay rates and financial responsibility
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Prince Harry boosts his coffers while taking no prisoners among press and peersIt’s hard to blame Harry for hitting back against the monarchy and the media that made a sport out of his life for entertainment and profit
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Ronaldo spat raises questions over who has the bigger brand – superclubs or superstarsThe 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Liverpool FC transfer rumours raise questions about club’s futureThe 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?
The Last Post 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Sunak’s cabinet of curiosities does not inspire hope for an end to the madnessBritain’s latest prime minister has picked familiar faces in his cabinet, but Ireland should hope that he seeks a new path on Brexit
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Central Bank bets its house on mortgages staying better value than rentThe 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
The Last Post 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
The Last Post 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Budget packs a political punch that could change the fortunes of the parties in powerWhile 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Why Tommy Tiernan’s heartfelt pleas for Africa are likely to go unansweredThere 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Contentious tax commission report will likely just join the others gathering dustRecommendations that require tough and unpopular decisions are diluted or ignored at the best of times, never mind on our current wartime footing
The Last Post 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
The Last Post 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?
The Last Post 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: A genuinely iconic building gets a new and public-friendly lease of lifeThe 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Letter row raises question of whether we get ‘two for one’ when we elect a presidentIt is not unreasonable to ask if President Michael D Higgins’s wife Sabina is a proxy for views he knows he cannot express publicly
The Last Post 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
The Last Post Matt Cooper: Little sympathy for blundering AIB after major tactical errorAIB has long had a reputation for corporate arrogance and in its focus on maximising profits, it seems it did not consider the social ramifications of the cashless plan
