A small group of children, no more than five or six years of age, were the immediate cause for 30,000 commuters in Tallaght, Templeogue and Walkinstown being stranded yesterday morning by Dublin Bus.
Drivers at Ringsend garage took unofficial strike action after children at a stop pressed the button that opened the middle doors on a bus as passengers were alighting.
Local bus inspectors are empowered to withdraw services from areas of Tallaght for up to an hour at a time in response to incidents, but on this occasion the inspector felt the incident did not warrant such a sanction.
When the driver returned to the stop and the children pressed the button again, his colleagues decided to strike because of the lack of management response.
Senior management sources in Dublin Bus see the incident as an example of a small group of maverick drivers overreacting and venting their anger on local communities.
Unions see the strike as the end product of continuous harassment of members by a small minority of residents in Tallaght.
Both agree the election campaign has not helped, with some candidates aggravating the situation to garner votes.
As SIPTU branch secretary Mr Martin Meere points out, there have been 16 incidents on buses in Tallaght since April 16th, an average of one every second day. These range from fights between passengers, to drivers being spat at, urinated on, assaulted and having their buses stoned.
He says the fact that such a minor incident on Wednesday night could spark a strike which disrupted 10 bus routes shows "our members have reached the stage where the smallest thing can tip them over the edge".
While Mr Meere and his colleagues in the National Bus and Railworkers Union persuaded drivers to return to normal working before lunch yesterday, he admits the problem could flare up again anytime.
He also points out that persuading them to work is not becoming any easier.
"It is very hard for me to turn around to a driver who has been peed and spat on and tell him it's all right for him to go back to where it happened."
Dublin Bus operations manager Mr Mick Matthews said: "In industrial relations terms the strike is something that shouldn't have happened.
"We have two trade unions to represent the drivers and our people met them at a local management meeting this morning."
He said a lot of the problem was perception.
He maintained there were fewer incidents in Tallaght than many other parts of Dublin, but they received greater publicity.
Out of 96 incidents on Dublin Bus considered serious enough to be logged in Garda Síochána crime statistics in April, only four relate to Tallaght.
Mr Matthews and Mr Meere said the problem in Tallaght was caused by less than one per cent of the population.
Both praised the work of community groups and the Gardaí.
"The guards have given 110 per cent on this, but they can't be on every bus," Mr Meere pointed out.
Ironically, media coverage for yesterday's strike may aggravate things.
Withdrawal of services to parts of Tallaght because of anti-social behaviour is no longer news, but a total withdrawal of services to south-west Dublin topped the headlines on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
If drivers adopt the anti-social stance of their tormentors, things could become much worse.