`The whole psychological contract between the nation and the force has been broken," is one informed observer's view of the worst period of industrial unrest in the history of the Garda. Over the last three months there has been the sound of another pillar of society taking a hammering. Like the Army deafness claims, the Garda pay dispute has put men and women in uniform in the firing line for public ridicule.

Few gardai have been spared the "blue flu" jibe. The phrase has become so embedded in the lexicon of labour disputes it may never be forgotten. The prison officers joked if they ever took similar action they have a readymade name for it: screw flu.

As the pay talks entered the tortuous detail phase this week, more than five days past the provisional deadline set for an agreement, it has remained unclear if the latest offer will immunise the force against further doses.

The progression of the dispute to boiling point had a number of factors. Less than three months ago GRA president Mr John Healy was cautiously optimistic that 2,500 rank and file gardai would arrive in Dublin to take part in a march on the Dail. The turnout for the last march had not lived up to GRA expectations.

But the march on April 21st was estimated at more than 3,500, a gesture the GRA executive took as a sign that the mood of militancy was matched on the ground. At the association's annual conference in May, less than a fortnight after 80 per cent of those rostered to work came down with the first bout of blue flu, the leadership responded in table-thumping fashion. Leaders insisted to the media they were merely responding to the anger of gardai rather than feeding it, prior to their re-election at conference.

Deputy general secretary Mr Tony Hand, a member of the talks team, told delegates there was a number of ways to skin the pay claim. There could be a "uniqueness allowance", a proposal for a 39-hour week, longservice increments, and a boiling down of the 14-grade pay scale for rank and file gardai. At least one of these ideas is believed to be part of the latest negotiations.

But militancy was the overriding tone of the conference, with one delegate telling those calling for a return to the talks to get some backbone. Brickbats were thrown at the sister organisation, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), which had remained in the talks after the April 1st offer of 5.5 per cent.

After the conference, and the successful re-election of most of the executive, there was little of the dilution of militancy that some predicted.

The GRA continued in "talks about talks" The secretary of the Department of Justice, Mr Tim Dalton, had regular telephone conversations with executive members.

Their return to the talks table followed the second blue flu day. Called with less than 24 hours notice, the second protest day rattled both Garda management and the Government. It was a much more serious strike than May 1st, with the refusal of AGSI members to cover for their rank and file colleagues and the threat that probationers and students could be called out in future protests. While the opposition parties attacked the Government for its handling of the dispute, they were careful not to indicate they would offer anything different, much less the 15 per cent first-phase pay rise the GRA was demanding. The Government faced the bleak prospect of weekly protests leaving the State without a visible police force.

That threat has been "suspended rather than abandoned" as the talks continued this week. GRA vice-president Mr Michael Kirby does not agree that the Garda has been damaged by the industrial action. "Some people got up on their high moral horse. And we've been getting lectures from lots of journalists. But people on the ground fully realise our predicament and our plight." The upfront cash payments of up to £1,700 per member, which will be paid almost immediately after a deal is accepted, are viewed as a significant sweetener. Individual gardai have said they are prepared to accept the combination of increases under the two national agreements of 13.75 per cent. GRA sources insist, however, the 4.75 per cent was "there for the taking" and should not be lumped in with the 9 per cent achieved in negotiations.

But it is believed that the 28 GRA leaders will need to give unanimous backing to the deal produced by their team of five negotiators, if it is to be passed by a majority of gardai. If the deal is done and accepted the force faces its own modernising overhaul in the next year. The phase two pay talks will deal with changes to rostering, civilianisation of the force and the implementation of technology and productivity plans under the Strategic Management Initiative (SMI).

The 1994 GRA deal on allowances led to the damaging split, and the setting up of the Garda Federation. Much of the upheaval of the last three months has been coloured by that rupture, and efforts to avoid a repeat of a deal seen as selling younger members down the river. Both Government and Garda management are anxious to close that unfortunate industrial relations chapter and get on with SMI.