Dear fg1984
I fear that your post is going to attract a lot of flak. Furthermore, it does reflect your own inexpereince and, perhaps, naivity surrounding this industry.
SOPs are designed and implemented to prevent this kind of crash (and I use the term crash quite deliberately - it was not an accident) from happening.
Many of us have benefitted from learning our trade with operators that provided thorough training and experienced captains who had all the Tshirts. Others, of course, don't, and I'm sure that they are equally good aviators.
However, in my expereince, what goes on on the flightdeck is a reflection of what goes on elswhere in the airline. Your friend, the FO, was 'green' and really knew no better (apart from the fact minimas are not to be broken) as, I fear, this was the SOP. The captain, I would venture to suggest, having been 'brought up' in this third level airline culture, also knew no better. Yes he knew the rules as well as anyone but breaking the minima was just the SOP.
The cause of this crash runs much deeper than just what happened during those 45 mins at Cork.