A week after the event there is an understandable mood of wanting to forget about the debacle which led to the closure last Sunday of the country's major international travel facility. But it would be foolish for those with political responsibility - or indeed for the general public - to lose sight of the fact that what was achieved in reopening Dublin Airport was a truce, not a lasting peace.
The questions which are at issue in the dispute go well beyond the immediate problems of Ryanair and its baggage handlers. For 36 hours last weekend the clock seemed to be turning back to the grim days of the 1970s when vital public services were paralysed as successive groups of workers and employers clashed - with the general public and the economy serving as the meat in the sandwich. Years of successful working consensus between the social partners have not exorcised the ghosts of that troubled era. It is as well that memories remain sharp.
Ireland's economic success has brought with it particular challenges for certain unions and employers alike. Companies like Ryanair, born with and itself a contributor to this boom, see themselves much like the frontier folk who were encouraged to go West and win the land. Having done so, they are not overly-receptive to regulation or negotiation. Meanwhile, with some worker-representatives there is a drift from the objective of shared partnership with management towards an old-fashioned militancy, focused on immediate issues of pay and conditions. The presence of either mind-set in an industrial-relations dispute is potentially combustible.
It would be seriously to the detriment of Ireland's economic development if all employers were to be forced to recognise and negotiate only with the unions. And any Government which was to preside over such a change would be guilty of jeopardising everything that has been gained over years of economic struggle. The Ryanair dispute must not be resolved by forcing the company to a surrender, even if that were possible, on this issue. But equally, if successful companies like Ryanair are to operate in an environment which is free of regulation in its relations with staff, they must create a positive climate which effectively eliminates all but the most unreasonable of grievances.
Perhaps Ryanair has succeeded in this. More than 600 workers are reported to have signed a petition declaring their unwillingness to be represented by the unions. But if the petition reflects the reality on the ground, the company has singularly failed to represent this happy condition to the general public. Two versions of life within Ryanair have been presented: the company claims that all but 39 of its workforce is content to work without union representation; union sources argue that the 39 baggage handlers are those who have put themselves on the line and that they reflect a latent desire for union representation by a workforce which is intimidated and cowed.
But no independent ballot or similar yardstick has been applied to ascertain where the truth lies. More than 900 non-striking Ryanair workers seem to have no voice. How can they, for the airline makes it a condition of their employment that they do not speak publicly about company matters? If Ryanair really has the support of the great bulk of its workforce in refusing to recognise the baggage-handlers' right to professional representation, surely it has served itself ill by enforcing their silence.