The passengers and airport visitors present in the arrivals terminal when a man sparked off a major security alert yesterday described scenes of "organised chaos" as thousands of people were forced to evacuate the building.
Hundreds of passengers and visitors assembled on the roads leading into the airport.
Sinead Coffey of the Education First language school was waiting to meet some 30 Italian students when she saw a man hold a rucksack above his head and speak in what she described as an Arabic-like language.
She and her colleague Ciara Kinsella described the scenes as the most "frightening experience" of their lives. "He was shouting something like 'abu ake'. After about 30 seconds, he said, I have a bomb, I have a bomb. Everyone get out."
Scenes of "complete pandemonium" ensued as people began running through the terminal building. Children were crying and parents were desperately trying to gather their children and luggage and begin running towards the nearest exit, according to Ms Coffey.
They described the man who walked in front of them with a bag above his head as being bald, of medium build, in his 50s and wearing a green T-shirt.
Kevin Mulligan from Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin, said he heard the man shouting he was from al-Qaeda. "I just ran like everybody else . . . the airport cleared within a minute. Everybody just ran," he said. "You did think to yourself, 'is this guy for real?' But when he's saying there is a bomb, you have to take him seriously."
When the passengers returned to the terminal, computer screens told of delays, cancellations and revised arrival and departure times. Messages of cancelled flights and Dublin Airport Authority apologies were replayed. In the arrivals hall, passengers told of waiting to exit their planes on the runway.
Imelda Gleeson, who was two hours on a plane on the runway, commended the Aer Lingus pilot on his continuous updates and the decision to allow passengers use mobile phones.
One group of 25 children from Madrid who were last night en route to Barretstown children's camp for 10 days were said to have remained calm during their 90-minute wait.
Pam McQuaid from Rathfarnham, Dublin, who was scheduled to fly out at 4.10pm to Bologna with her mother and two children, was still queuing outside the airport at 3.45pm , waiting for flight information.
While she was critical of the lack of information, Ms McQuaid was confident of flying out late last night.