the following is the full text of the reply i received from the Aviation Regulation and International Relations division of the Department of Transport in Dublin.
1 The Flyglobespan flights originate from two destinations in the UK and have been given permission to land and pick up passengers at Ireland West (Knock). The airline is designated under the UK US Air Services Agreement The traffic rights to operate the routes set out in the application are based on the UK US Air Services Agreement and traffic rights have been approved by the US and UK authorities.
The Minister for Transport has granted authorisation under Section 8 of the Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1965 for the operation of air services by FlyGlobespan via Ireland West Airport Knock to and from two points in the UK and US for an initial period of twelve months:
2 As the Ireland US Air Services Agreement is still in force the status of Shannon and Dublin Airports is unchanged
3 On the question of Cork Airport it may be of interest that permission was given some years ago for an Irish carrier to operate direct tranatlantic flights from Cork to designated points (as per the Ireland US Air Services Agreement) in the US. The operator did not proceed with the service. We have no application for transatlantic flights from Cork at present.