The Irish Farmers' Association former president, Tom Parlon, went home to his farm yesterday as meat plants remained under picket and the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, and his colleagues frantically sought a settlement to the dispute.
Mr Parlon had walked into the first floor room in the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise on Monday night with the knowledge that if he made the wrong decision, his organisation could receive a mortal blow from the courts.
He and his colleagues were already carrying a fine of £500,000 clocked up for disobeying a High Court order preventing them picketing meat plants for the previous five days.
But he was entering new territory because after severe criticism by Mr Justice O'Donovan, continuation of the dispute beyond midnight on Monday would mean an increase in the fine to £500,000 per day.
The judge also sealed off the last avenue left to activists. He told the IFA he had no intention of creating martyrs by imprisoning any farmer.
Mr Parlon outlined the stark legal reality to the 68-member national council which had crowded into the room, and according to some of the people who attended, his gloomy predictions were greeted with silence.
In the discussions that followed, the IFA leader indicated his preference for the protest to continue but said it was entirely a matter for the national executive. He would not propose an end to the picketing, he said.
A motion which had been drafted by the organisation's solicitor, Mr Michael Staines, who was not at the meeting but waited in an adjoining room, was read to the meeting.
The terms of what some of the people in the room called "surrender" were heard in near silence when it was read out to the members by the organisation's general secretary, Mr Michael Berkery.
Shortly before 10 p.m. the wording of the apology to be given in court the following day was put into motion form and it was proposed by John Boylan, the treasurer, and seconded by Gerry Maguire, who had been injured by a truck on the pickets in Wexford on Sunday night.
When it was put to the meeting there were only a few against when they were asked to say "for" or "against". Tom Parlon's was one of the latter.
However, when the motion was carried, Mr Parlon stood up and told the meeting he could not support the decision and he was tendering his resignation as president of the organisation. Raymond O'Malley said he was doing the same.
As the meeting closed, other members of the national executive said they too were going to resign. Many of them had already put their resignations in writing.
Yesterday, as the picketing continued at all the plants Mr Justice O'Donovan accepted the IFA apology and commitment to obey the court order and said he would not impose the £500,000 a day fine on the organisation.
He did, however, oversee the handing over of the £500,000 fine already imposed and warned he would heavily fine individuals who continued picketing if they were identified to him.
As the court was sitting, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, was meeting representatives of the Irish Meat Association to see if there was any possibility of them moving forward on the pricing structure
He emerged shortly before lunchtime to say progress had been made. He was later to tell the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture he was putting an improved offer to the IFA and had invited it and the former president, Mr Parlon, and Mr Raymond O'Malley, to take part.
Picketing at the meat plants intensified but it was difficult to find evidence that the action was being co-ordinated. Farmers were refusing to identify themselves for fear of fines.
Late last evening there was an unscheduled meeting between members of the Irish Meat Association and the ICSA, the Irish Cattle Traders and Stockowners Association, which has been picketing the IMA building for the past few days.
Its general secretary, Mr Eddie Punch, said that while IMA representatives did not indicate they were going to increase their offer for beef, he was told they now regretted going to the courts to seek redress against the IFA.
Meanwhile, amid continued pressure to find a resolution to the dispute, members of the ICMSA yesterday signalled their intention to hold a protest near where the first meeting held outside Dublin is to take place, in Ballaghaderreen.