How things have changed. I came out of the RAF at the age of 38 with 8,000 hours on 4-engined aeroplanes some 30-odd years ago and I had four job offers without even trying (DanAir, Monarch, Britannia and Laker). I went to Laker on the DC-10 and got my command (on the DC-10) after 18 months.
Fred went bust as we all know and I was out of work twice (when another airline had problems) for a total of about two years until I retired at 65.
The good thing was that I never ever went back into the right seat, so, on balance, I had an excellent career and retired financially happy. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time on several occasions and I have to say that aviation is all about who was there when the phone rang!
Paying for a type rating was never, ever even suggested.
However, times have changed as you have already noticed. You are now competing against the youngsters coming out of CTC, Oxford etc. etc.
I hate to say it but, if you can't beat them join them. Unless you have a good mate who could bring you to the attention of PM (who is ex-Hunters and runs Jet2) then you have two choices as I see it.
You say that you already have an ATPL so that's a lot of expense out of the way. To get your foot in the door you are realistically going to have to buy a type-rating on either the B737 or the A320. So, we are talking FR or EZY. You are unlikely to get into EZY because you will have to be a CTC cadet first and I wouldn't do that.
That leaves the Irish monster. You have no doubt worked for some fairly major
in the RAF before, so nothing will change on that front. At least the aircraft are new, the training is excellent, it is a very interesting job, you will get paid on time and you will gain a lot of good experience.
The second alternative is to keep applying to BA and keep praying to God that you are there when the phone rings. In the meantime, I should do plumbing for your resettlement course.
Good Luck.