I dont agree that LGW was a bad choice of base. Sadly, any airport could be deemed to be a bad choice of airport for Aer Lingus. What I mean is that when Aer Lingus announced LGW the feedback on here was broadly;
-London is a huge market and LGW is a very busy airport
-Aer Lingus will be well known due in part to the significant Irish Population in the London area.
-As LGW will attract strong passenger numbers, Aer Lingus will easily get this business with their low fares and pre assigned seating etc.
-Ryanair unlikely to be able to launch at the scale that they want to go head to head with Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus has chosen bases ie BFS & LGW where it is unlikely that Ryanair can access directly. In BFS FR never could get a deal and the airport was unlikely to give same given that EZY was based there. LGW as stated there was a slot restriction situation (to a large extent) and Ryanair would be reluctant to operate a base at what is probably a high cost environment and a congested airport?
So if Aer Lingus are shortlisting an airport for a base strike off any where Ryanair could access. So in that sense CWL is one where Ryanair is not interested in, BLK too, as well as MAN. Outside of those in the UK Aer Lingus will not touch.
I would agree however, that most people would associate Aer Lingus with a trip to the Island of Ireland. What would be a great idea would be rather than rebranding the airline, launch a low fares website and get other airlines into this web facility.
Eg like Moneysupermarket
They sell a wide range of services from different companies under one umbrella.
That said I would always agree that an airline name that has the country of the origin in its name will always be associated with that place. However, AirBerlin may well be the exception.
EI-BUD