Reality
Of course there is a big difference between pipe dreams and reality but there are some who would have argued that Aer Lingus operating BOH-DUB would have been a delusion.
BOH doesn't have a lot of choice in terms frequencies/routes and thus a KLM global connection service is still something the airport should persue. This also solves the inbound issue that BOH could tap into. Currently 156,000 foreign students (mainly Italy, Spain, German, Scandinavia, Korean, Japanese) come to BOH each year by train and national express bus after arriving at LGW and LHR. These are affluent students with money from rich families not broke British students!! And the number hasn't declined even after the recession.
BOH should be able to support a higher frequency Channel Islands service too. It hasn't been operated correctly in the past by either blue islands or bmi baby.
The above, together with some steady but conservative growth from FR and EZY I think is the future for BOH.