Shortly after 8 a.m. on a cold morning in late February, Joe Walsh picked up a ringing telephone in the Helpline control centre in the Department of Agriculture offices. He had developed a habit of arriving early in the office and dropping in to the centre to rally the troops who were dispensing information on how to prevent foot-and-mouth getting into the Republic. Sometimes he answered the calls.

The query was not as simple as he had expected. It was the father of a girl who was about to be married and as some of the guests would be coming in from Britain, where foot-and-mouth disease was raging, should he cancel or let the wedding go ahead?

"I was amazed and delighted that the public were taking the issue so much to heart," Mr Walsh recalls. "I could barely believe that a wedding would be cancelled. I asked for, and got, advice and the wedding went ahead." This week, 90 days after the first outbreak of the disease on this island in 60 years, the State asked the international authorities to restore our "white" status - to accept Ireland is free of foot-and-mouth disease.

The story of the wedding that nearly did not happen is just one of many in a remarkable period of Irish history that saw St Patrick's Day postponed to May, Roman Catholic Bishops advising people not to go to Mass and total disruption to normality in the State.

It was a period in which public parks were shut, , the countryside was out of bounds, the Cheltenham Festival postponed, Gaelic games cancelled and, in one of those rare years when the Irish Rugby team might have taken major honours, matches were cancelled.

Those directly involved in preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease speak of the period as "the war", a war they say that could not have been won without the goodwill of the Irish public.

"It appeared to me that the public wanted to get involved. They showed real concern and patriotism for their country and the farming community. It was quite remarkable," Mr Walsh said. But behind the goodwill, there had to be a plan and most people agree that the setting up of a special Government task force to deal with the crisis, was pivotal. The force, a special co-ordinating committee of various Government Departments was chaired by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and met every morning at 8.30 a.m. in the Department of the Taoiseach.

It comprised representatives from the Departments of the Taoiseach, Public Enterprise, and Finance, plus the Garda, Army and representatives of any other Departments or agencies considered appropriate. Mr Walsh's main man on the task force was a quiet-spoken Mayo man, Seamus Healy, assistant secretary in the Department. He is doubtful if any more effective body has ever been set up in the State.

"From an administration point of view it worked very well. We had many things going for us, not least the fact that the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said anything or anybody that was required would be provided, and it was," he says.

"We had the goodwill of the nation behind us, we had the resources and the direct input of the Taoiseach, who attended many of the meetings over the crisis period.

"All the players who were involved in keeping the disease out of the country were there, and at times you would find three-quarters of the Cabinet sitting down in the morning to decide what had to be done that day."

The meetings were normally opened with a briefing from Mr Walsh and then there would be a general discussion on how to proceed and what needs had to be met. Most of the Ministers and civil servants were back at their desks by 9.15 a.m. to get on with their day, having been fully briefed about the situation and aware of what was required from their Departments.

Mr Healy, who is credited by his colleagues in the Civil Service as being "the ultimate administrator", said one of the priorities of the task force was to have comprehensive and highly visible controls and disinfectant facilities at all points of entry into the State.

It was also charged with conducting public awareness campaigns to drive home the seriousness of the matter; to look at the possible restriction of the movements of animals and people and to prepare contingency plans in the event of any escalation of the disease.

Mr Walsh and Mr Healy reject criticisms that the Department did not move quickly enough following confirmation of the outbreaks of the disease in Britain, to prevent its arrival here. The disease was first identified in Britain on February 20th and the Department's chief veterinary officer, Colm Gaynor, had already been tipped off by UK colleagues that a real crisis was looming.

The next day, imports of cattle, sheep and pigs and dairy products were banned, including imports from Northern Ireland, and staff from the Department were placed on alert and gardai began to seal off the Border.

By Friday, marts were closed and hunting in Border areas banned, and as resources began to build up on the Border, the Government specified designated crossing points. Helplines were set up in the Department and an intensive advertising campaign began.

By February 27th the Irish Rugby Football Union had agreed to cancel the Wales-Ireland game in Lansdowne Road, which was scheduled for the end of that week; Dublin Zoo was closed; and horse owners were advised not to travel to Cheltenham. The next day, the movement of all susceptible animals - sheep, cattle, pigs, goats and deer - was banned except for slaughter and a permit system was put in place.

But the inevitable happened. On March 1st Northern Ireland's first case of the disease was identified at Meigh, south Armagh. These sheep had been infected by animals imported from an infected mart in Britain. However, the Irish authorities appear to have known at least two days before the confirmation of the outbreak there and a control zone had been established in Co Louth across the Border and the movement of all animals put in place on February 28th.

The confirmation of the Meigh case and its links with other sheep which had come across the Border sparked off a major search to locate all sheep imported from Britain since February 1st.

Within 10 days, nearly 3,000 sheep that may have had contact with imported animals were slaughtered and at one stage, over 700 farms that might have been infected were under restriction. What was uncovered in these tracing operations led to a weekend drafting, on March 3rd/4th, of legislation to control dealers, effectively banning dealing by making it law that animals would have to be retained for 30 days after purchase.

It was introduced into the Seanad on March 7th and in the Dail the following day. It had passed all stages and became law on March 9th. That was most significant piece of legislation put forward during the crisis, but the task force generated over 70 statutory instruments to cope with the crisis.

Meanwhile, Department staff taking calls from the public were being plagued by obscene calls and nuisance callers when freephone lines were provided. They decided to make a small charge for calls and there was an immediate and dramatic fall in nuisance calls.

On the Border, gardai were busy searching vehicles coming in from the North and seizing food and other materials that might prove hazardous and spread the virus. Seizures continue to this day as there has been no relaxation of the Border controls.

A special expert group, under Prof Michael Monaghan of UCD, was working almost on a daily basis advising on the strengths and weaknesses of the controls. This committee was of major importance in the defence shield. According to those who were at the cutting edge, the period immediately between the Meigh outbreak and the first confirmed case in the Republic on March 22nd, was the most difficult time of the crisis.

According to Seamus Healy, everyone was working flat out and at that stage nearly one-fifth of the Garda force and several thousand troops had been committed to the Border. "We were told by the vets that the Proleek suspect had all the classic symptoms, but we had a similar one in Carlow about a week before. However, we decided to throw all resources into the Louth area," he recalls.

"It was like sitting up with a sick elderly relative who was not going to get well and yet, when that person dies, it's still a shock."

Mr Walsh knew too that things looked bad in Proleek but it also came as a shock to him when, at 8.30 a.m. on March 22nd, he was told by the Secretary General of the Department, John Malone, that the case was confirmed.

"I immediately phoned the Taoiseach and he said he would tell the Irish people about the case in the Dail and that was what he did. It was a very bad day but we were prepared. We battened down the hatches," says Mr Walsh.

"We got an even greater shock when over 40 days after the Meigh outbreak, there were fresh outbreaks in the North. That gave our confidence a bit of a knock because the bug was only supposed to last for 30 days maximum."

This week, the Minister said he was convinced the "war was won" and we do not have an active virus in the country but, as he has been saying for the last three months, no one should completely relax until 30 days after the last confirmed outbreak in Britain.

As for Mr Healy, a lot of his time is now being taken with queries from visiting delegations who want to know how Ireland managed to confine the disease so well.

Already, he has briefed Americans, New Zealanders and Australians and there are more requests coming in on an almost daily basis to see how the war was won.