4Shoudln't effect them at all. They'll get €250k from their 2 euroepan games and they'll likely win the league giving them another €100k. while €18k is huge for a LOI club, Dundalk are in a position to pay it this year (I'd imagine the money will just be deducted from their UEFA payments)
they're detached from Reality and yet you want Dundalk to not pay it. "End of."? You're a big fan of the ROI national team, do you think it's a good idea for the FAI to ignore UEFA?
Geysir has already pointed out the rule. You can point to national flags all you want, but every single person knows why that flag was being flown. The fact that the UEFA delegate instructed Dundalk to take them down, and Dundalk complied with that, shows that Dundalk acknowledge it as a political thing. They should have removed the flags completely and not allowed fans the chance to fly them at a later stage of the game. That's effectively what they've been sanctioned for; the ego of 1/2 fans that thought they could do what they liked.
The fans standing thing isn't merely for standing but for occupying an area of the ground that can't be used (behind the goal in oriel). Bit of naivety there maybe from Dundalk stewards/officials.