Theres definately potential for EI to develop some sort of hub at dublin. They could easily feed traffic from BOS, ORD, JFK and LAX to the UK, Spain, South of France etc. EI offers very good fares from DUB to the US and to Europe, so they would be a viable alternative for many travellers over BA, AF etc. If they just timed their flights a little better! If they could get their ORD flight into DUB earlier, they could connect passengers onto some of the many flights leaving from 6.30am onwards!