Help! 7 hour layover in Dublin airport with teenagers. What to do?

[Uniquenpeek]

Thanks to Aer Lingus' appalling customer service we now have a 7 hour wait in Dublin airport. Flying Manchester to Dublin, then Dublin to JFK. Aer Lingus moved our Manchester to Dublin flight forward but because it's a change of less than 3 hours they want to charge over £4400 to move us to a later flight from Manchester to Dublin.

Are we allowed to leave the airport? Should we leave the airport? Head into a nearby town? Book an airport hotel so we can at least chill out while we wait? Have considered booking new flights separately from Manchester to Dublin but worried they might reallocate our connecting Dublin to JFK if we don't check in at Manchester. Can't even book in the airport lounge as it's closed for refurb.

Anyone had similar problems? Not the best start to our holiday, but lesson learned, I will never fly Aer Lingus again.

Would also advise not going into the city centre. Howth for a stroll around and fish and chips would be very manageable though.

Actually it's not as bad as that.
I went through pre clearance at the end of January.

There is a modern cafe making a very excellent flat white, yes there were sandwiches. But also fresh noodle salads and similar.

The only thing that I couldn't find was fruit or veg as obvs you can't take it through to the states.

The little newsagents was really well stocked though and DD and I had a lovely kombucha.

There were actually three places selling food and drink.

We also found it really comfy down there. It wasn't busy on the Friday we travelled. Loads of toilets, loads of seating.

Very useful site for things like this is Sleeping in Airports ... its suggestions for Dublin are: Sleeping in Airports: Dublin

You are allowed to leave the airport. Don't go into the city center. It's too much of a risk timewise. The traffic can be very heavy. Queues at US pre clearance are unpredictable so you'll need to be back at the airport in plenty of time. If you leave the airport at all don't go further than Malahide. Avoca in Malahide Castle do a lovely lunch and it's maybe 15 mins by taxi. The castle grounds are lovely to wander around.

100% this!!!