Right, Leo, how about this. Just like in the Taoiseach's speech the other day you have also chosen to briefly mention Cork as a by the way to my mind. If you are having a laugh at us that is your choice but for once let us give Ryanair a chance to undo the cynical negativity towards Cork and I am including in that regard the Bye, bye easyJet logojet.
To get your credentials up and running in the long haul game why not test the water so to speak by committing a brand new 737 to Cork next sumer for a first transatlantic service to Hartford, Connecticut, (BDL) at a twice or even once weekly frequency as Irish registered airlines are not bound by stopover regulations for opeations from Cork and Knock but American airlines are still so bound. Hartford is about 2 hours from both New York and Boston by road so there is no problem there to make a few more bucks in the bus ride!? Even for onward connections Southwest, Delta, Northwest have a fair range of destinations so that angle could also be covered too for folk wanting to travel futher west in the States. Okay, maybe at 189 pax the 737 might be at the very limit of range but what if Cork subsidized ten or fifteen seats on top of new route incentives it might be just possible and legal to do from Cork. Of course, you'd have to get a few aeroplanes with the higher trust ratings for the engines and a few fixes like the GOL airframes have for take offs from shorter runways like at Cork.
You'd have the Cork crowd grovelling at your feet and yer Jazz man from Ballinlough Road would have pages and pages to himself in De Paper and D'Echo for days & days on end.
The thing is Ryanair could make it happen but it'd be almost certainly be from Shannon and regretably not from Cork.