Peb,
The 1,200 hours you quote under Irish regulations is a lot of cojones!!! We fly 900 hours per year and at the moment averaging about 75-80 hours per month.
Yes, work is hard and the basic salary is low. However, flight pay is good and you should be on decent money within a year of starting with Ryanair. There are quite a few Spanish and Spanish speaking pilots (Argentinians, Mexicans, etc.) and most of them are very happy, our Girona base is now also an added attraction plus our ever growing Spanish route network.
Any questions, feel free to post them. Perdone pero no habla mucho espanol. Hasta Luego.