A stranger passing through the North Wall area of Dublin yesterday might have thought that a residents' syndicate had just won the Lotto.
People were running up and down streets ringing doorbells. Hugs and kisses were being distributed with gay abandon.
"It's even better than winning the Lotto," local resident Mr Gerry Fay declared, speaking about the Bord Pleanala decision to reject a major part of the Spencer Dock development plan. "It's better because this is all about the survival of a community despite the attempts to undermine it."
Anyone passing Caledon Street yesterday morning would have seen a rare sight. "I ran down the street in my pyjamas as soon as I heard the news on Morning Ire- land," admitted Ms Ida Hernon, from Caledon Road.
"I was so excited. I was absolutely thrilled. Justice has been done. It's victory for us," she said. "We'll savour today and get strength for the next round."
She recalled how some residents felt that they were beaten before they began because they would never be able to fight the developers.
"People were adamant that we wouldn't get anywhere. They said we hadn't a chance."
Mr Harry Crosbie's Late Late Show throwaway comment that the residents ate their young seemed to have galvanised people into action, she said.
In the understatement of the week a local priest, Father John Wall, said people were "pleasantly surprised".
He added: "I said before that this development would have made Liberty Hall look like a telephone box. It just couldn't have gone ahead."
But while Mayor Street resident Ms Marie O'Reilly was relieved with the outcome, she was also cautious. "We've won the battle but not the war yet," she said.
The residents were particularly annoyed at the developers' attitude to them. "They were so arrogant. As far as they were concerned, we were null and void," Ms Hernon said.
At the hearing, the six houses on Upper Mayor Street were described as "a problem on the periphery". Ms O'Reilly said that the only consultation the Mayor Street residents had had with the developers was when they offered to buy them out.
She said the residents were not opposed to development. "We know that there still has to be development on this site but we hope that this will act as a warning to developers to consult locals when drawing up their plans.
"We felt all along that Dublin Corporation should never have approved this. If they hadn't, we would have been saved this lengthy and expensive appeal."
Meanwhile a Mayor Street resident, Ms Millie Masterson, was reeling from the media glare. "We just had Charlie Bird here and I told him that he had me worried because he only interviews crooks," she said. She has lived in Upper Mayor Street for 72 years and was determined that she would not be moved. And she had some dietary advice for Mr Crosbie.
"If we were his first course on the menu, then I recommend that he move on to the second course today - humble pie."
Ms Catherine O'Shea, of Caledon Street, said the plan to replace homes with offices was a form of ethnic cleansing. "My friend moved away because of this. And I know other people who moved. It is a form of ethnic cleansing because people have lost their friends.
"If this had gone ahead, I would have left. I have two kids with asthma and I couldn't let them live on a building site for 10 years."
The party of a lifetime was being planned in the Sheriff Club yesterday by Mr Gerry Fay. "We're having a party tonight and Harry Crosbie is invited to come. I hear he's a lovely singer," he said.