Your comment makes sobering reading, Flitefone, with regards to the years ahead for Ryanair and Aer Lingus.
MO'L has still not consumed or killed off Aer Arann on Cork - Dublin and he has been trying hard now for a few years so in a way FR can be stood up to a point at least.
Off course, if it is inevitable that FR go longhaul, that changes the whole picture. They will still need to have a product worth buying and in the next few years even cheaper long haul travel will hardly be the stuff of low prices like they have been for a few years in the short haul market.