It lost six of its daily services to Britain. By lunchtime, 660 departing passengers had been affected. In the morning, only the Aer Arann flight to Dublin got away. But Knock wasn't even mentioned on RTE's lunchtime television news.

"We've no connection with Dublin airport whatsoever, " said Knock's customer relations manager Desmond O'Flynn. "Our operations manager, Carmel Kilcoyne, was on the phone with the Department of Transport Aviation Security Division four or five times between nine and ten o'clock this morning. There are procedures in place. We would defer to them."

A brief survey of the delayed passengers at what is now known . . . after its recent rebranding . . . as 'Ireland West Airport Knock', provides a vivid glimpse of the solid ties between the west of Ireland and the UK.

The Fulwoods and the Fords had been at a wedding in Barna, Co Galway. "Fantastic time, " said Mrs Fulwood. The two couples, and young Rebecca Poole, were booked on one of the two daily flights to Birmingham, and had hoped to be back at their homes in Shropshire and Staffordshire that night. Both Mrs Fulwood and Mrs Ford were expected back at work.

"The dog's going to have another night in kennels, " said Mrs Fulwood.

She had been trying in vain to get BMIBaby on the phone. "Probably taken it off the hook, " she said. "I would."

The Ryanair desk was staffed by a lone young woman who was under a lot of stress. The queue facing her offered a glimpse of just how far the catchment area of Ireland West Airport Knock reaches. Catherine McNaughton is from Donegal but works in Luton.

She'd been up since six that morning, drove for three hours, had returned her hired car and wasn't too pleased with the lack of information in the airport when she arrived.

"There was no information, nothing on the tannoy, nothing on the website, " she says. The car hire company told her that, should she wish to drive back to Donegal that night, her car had already been assigned to another customer.

At airport information, brothers Sean and Billy were trying to get back to Manchester, where they have worked laying gas mains for 39 years. They're from Offaly, but had attended a funeral in Pontoon, Co Mayo, on Tuesday. "After the funeral, it was like being in a pub in Manchester, " they said. "Lots of people who worked over there have come back. It's good. But we want to know what our chances are of getting back to Manchester tonight."