I thought it was their base at Weeze Niederrhein (NRN), otherwise known as Düsseldorf for the geographically challenged, that was going to close. Seems a shame, as it is quite a nice airport although it is a fair hike from Düsseldorf (why not call it Duisburg?)

I think it's the only airport in Germany that charges you to merely drive up to the terminal (without parking). Not sure I would call that nice.

Does anyone know what Ryanair’s “free move” policy is for flight retimings of less than 3 hours?

On the schedule change email they offer a weblink to accept the new timings, or suggest calling to discuss moving the flight for free.

It would be great to know what the acceptable parameters are around moving the flight. Is it 3 days, a week, a month, or to the end of the booking window? (The latter would be ideal given the destination is not on the Irish travel green list).

Do they do that? I had no idea. It must have changed since the last time I was there which, admittedly, was probably around 4 years ago. That is exactly what a number of British airports do.
Driving up to the terminal, ok. But you can set somebody down somewhere, surely, or are you totally trapped within their system? Shysters.

As for the question on Ryanair vs. easyJet:

Ryanair is ULCC, easyJet is more of a traditional LCC. Ryanair is a bit more restrictive when it comes to hand luggage, its IRROPS handling is less customer-friendly, and it relies more on low-fee airports in non-central locations (e.g., Ryanair flies to BGY, easyJet to MXP; Ryanair relies primarily on STN in LON and SXF in BER, whereas it's LGW in LON and TXL in BER for easyJet).

They have exactly the same bag policy no? One bag only. I hate it.

Yes, in the sense it's a one bag policy on the base fare, but there are quite a few nuances on it. Firstly easyJet has the much bigger bag size:
easyJet cabin bag: 56 x 45 x 25 cm
Ryanair cabin bag: 40 x 25 x 20 cm
Wizz cabin bag: 40 x 30 x 20cm

Secondly all 3 airlines have various schemes relating to either bringing in a second bag in the cabin (usually involving the priority boarding supplement) or checking the bag. easyJet also has a scheme for checking in the first bag ("hands free"), where you can still take a "small item" up to 45x36x20cm and still take that on board. So if you have a standard way of travelling - in terms of bags - and you are disinclined to adapt that to LCC flying, then given the dimensions you will have various tactics in terms of baggage fees. So when you see a published are of 20€ or whatever, you will know that really means 40€ in your situation. But comparison is important, along with factoring airport travel costs, since a Ryanair 20€ fare can easily be more expensive than a 60€ Wizz fare, or indeed vice versa.

All 3 of these airlines aren't too mindless about sizes, as a very general rule, so they may turn a blind eye if your bag is a cm or two too large. But you cannot count on that, and they won't turn a blind eye to two decent sized bags on a single bag fare.

No, they don't, because the dimensions allowed vastly differ.

With easyJet, you're allowed one piece of IATA size, that's 56x45x25cm. Ryanair limits it to 40x20x25cm in its rules. That's less than one third the size by volume.

Plus Ryanair limits the cabin bag to 10kg, while Easyjet has no weight limit on cabin luggage.

On the upside, Ryanair seems to have a slightly better seat pitch.

not sure that i've ever seen Ryanair weigh cabin baggage.

Oh I have, I can assure. I have even helped neighbouring passengers by taking some items so as to even out the weight, such as a laptop.

Many times at check in and a few times at the gate.

I cancelled two bookings on May 20th and applied for refunds for both. Forms submitted fine. A week later Ryanair did the offering a voucher thing which I ignored. It said click to accept it, it also said “If you do not wish to accept this voucher and wish to move your flight or request a refund, please click here to contact us.”

Ryanair’s FAQ update now says
”

• By the end of July, all of May and most of June cash refunds will also be processed.”

Since mine was cancelled in May I’m concerned Ryanair haven’t done it as I didn’t contact them again after that email. Anyone else in the same boat or have any idea? Calling their free number just results in “we are busy” message and then it hangs up.

Same boat. I did my refund request for a cancelled flight on 5/15 and got the email trying to talk me into a voucher. I clicked the "click here" and there was nothing to do there except not click on the "accept voucher" link again. Still no refund despite their claim that they've processed them.

Same experience for several bookings. Not a dime refunded yet. Has anyone here received refunds for Ryanair cancelled flights?