Yes, Ryanair didn't have much UK success outside of London from Shannon, even their Liverpool route went very close to getting the chop when they cut back. I wonder how much money they lost flying the likes of myself back and over from Prestwick for £5 each way there for a few years. I remember flying that route on a couple of Tuesdays with only 30 to 40 passengers on board - a hopeless load on a 738. The regional UK routes seem to have worked better for them from Knock for whatever reason, maybe its the lack of competition from Aer Lingus, although flybe's offering is considerably better than EIR's in my opinion.
If I was to guess what expansion is to come at Knock from Ryanair next year at this stage, I'd say extra Stansted rotations and either another sun route or extra frequencies on the existing ones. If there's a new route to the UK or mainland Europe (i.e. not a sun route) I'll be pleasantly surprised.
It's moving a bit off topic but Ryanair hamper themselves somewhat with their insistence on only using the 738. I wonder if they will consider the 737-700 at some point to allow them to move in to routes that the 738 is just too big for? They did of course use a smaller aircraft in the not too distant past, I think it was the 737-300.