I am pretty sure there is an option for carbon brakes for the 737 - it may well form part of the package on some of the GOL 737s in Brazil. After all the distances available at both Santos Dumont in Rio and Conghonas in Sao Paulo are even tighter than in Cork.
There was a point well made above as even a relatively short runway extension at Cork would make a huge, huge difference in the performance of some airliners. Cork 2133 meteres, Newcastle, UK 2333 metres. They have seasonal flights to Florida and now the Emirates flight to Dubai. For Cork, I would not even be as ambitious as seeking a 200 metres extension and I feel it would be sorted out in double quick time if there was a firm committment given to Cork of a service, west or east, as it certainly would not have to be somewhere like New York which at one time some of us in Cork had great hopes for but on mature reflection it is likely never to happen - the strangehold held by snn is just far too strong. Far better for Cork to aim for holding on to the likes of the new Brussels service and maybe making a deal with Ryanair for them to hang on to Milan in the winter time.
Far more realistic than what were in hindsight fanciful hopes of a North Atlantic service in my opinion.