EI's times were more humane but too late to connect to any transatlantic services so no use to through travellers.
Aer Arran operated to Galway which is great for a weekend away but not much else. The public transport options from Galway were very poor and the flight arrived too late to go on to anywhere else. The only public transport options down the West Coast were by bus as the train services only link back to Dublin in reality. The Shannon flight is now gone making travel into Ireland challenging.