How much money does one person actually need?

In this time of vast wealth and more billionaires than the world was ever supposed to have, you have to wonder how anyone knows they have enough.

Ed Sheeran, from all estimates, is worth around half a billion pounds. More money than any of us could ever imagine, let alone obtain.

I find this shocking, mostly because I have ears. Ed Sheeran’s music these days, a world away from his pop folksy hits of his debut, can only be described as the backing track to very loud TV ads for KFC or hairspray.

Cahair O’Kane: Ed Sheeran, Beoga and Ireland v Israel - the price of taking a stand

Aoife Moore: By putting money before morals, Ed Sheeran has lost Ireland

His song Galway Girl isn’t the most cruel or unusual punishment foisted on the Irish people by England, but it’s up there.

I am of course joking – colonialism is much worse– I just don’t think Ed Sheeran would know or agree.

Sheeran has been doing the age-old English trope of the modest English man who deeply cares about his Irish heritage.

He talks about his Irish nanny, and he even got a tattoo as gaelige: “nuair is gá dom fháil bhaile, is tú mo réalt eolais”, translated to “when I need to get home, you’re my guiding light”.

Poor Ed may find the house in........

© The Irish News