1. No, and no. Negative sentiment you're perhaps aware of here and elsewhere is driven principally by a small group in Dublin who've been maliciously persuaded by IALPA and their stillborn, deaf, dumb and blind idiot savant REPA, that they're in a position to influence outcomes. They aren't and they're grumpy about it. On the rare occasion when technical issues arise down route, there is plenty of highly capable support from OPS and MAINTROL in Dublin. To avail ones self of this, however, requires a mobile phone to be turned on.
2. Yes. Direct entry captains are well taken care of. There are issues in respect of, especially, cadet first officers, but these are being resolved.
3. Not really. Rosters are of a fixed pattern. 5 on 3 off in the case of based pilots, and 5 on 5 off in the case of unbased contractors. Its important to note, though, that this 5/5 roster is not available to permanent employees, all of whom are based in a location of their choice, wherever possible. Furthermore, the 5/5 situation is conditional on being sent, literally, anywhere in the network, week after week. By this I mean you may spend 5 days working out of Dublin, 5 days off, 5 days working out of Girona, 5 days off, 5 days working out of Rome, and so on. A demanding schedule, not to everyone's taste, but popular among pilots who are family men resident far from existing Ryanair bases. Rosters are published on Friday evenings around 1800UTC for the following week commencing Monday. Swaps are possible but difficult to rely upon due to the rather extraordinary workload of crew control.
4. Yes, very much indeed. By far the most demanding and professionally satisfying flying I've done in almost 30 years in the air.
Really want Cork base.
I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you, Your Honour. Cork is the elephants graveyard (sorry Willy) and mainly older captains are put there because of the ludicrous restrictions placed on captains over 60 flying over France and Italy. The only routes out of Cork are Irish domestic and UK, at the moment.