Hi, I'm a long-time lurker, first-time poster....

I'm visiting friends in west Ireland and in London in a month, and am trying to complete my itinerary:

June 21: BOS-DUB on Air Canada
June 27: NOC-LTN by RyanAir
??? London to Dublin
July 4: DUB-BOS return on AC, departing at 9:40 am.

I'm trying to book a flight to get back from London to Dublin airport, and ideally I'd like to leave London the morning of July 4th to maximize my holiday time there, etc. It looks like my options are:

1) BA8080 from LGW to DUB, departing at 6:25 and arriving at 7:50.
2) RyanAir's FR 331 from LTN to DUB, departing at 6:25 and arriving at 7:35, <sarcasm> only GBP 0.01!! </sarcasm>
3) Flying from London to Dublin the day before, and hanging out at the airport overnight.

According to my reservation with AC -- which was pretty cheap because of travel on the 4th of July, I think -- the cut-off time for Check-In is 60 minutes before scheduled departure.

My question is: Would this be a do-able connection? Do options 1 or 2 seem like a wise idea, or should I just resign myself to leaving London on July 3rd? Does anyone know if BA would be able to transfer my checked bag to AC?

I've read a bit about RyanAir online and know better than to try to involve them in any interlining of baggage. Can anyone offer any comments about whether BA might be more likely than FR to be ontime? Would I be foolish to rely on FR for an intermediate flight like this?

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated! I'm excited to have joined the FT community.