Champagne corks could be heard popping in the leafy environs of Ranelagh in Dublin city as the news filtered through. Their nemesis was doing chokey. That little man had finally got his comeuppance and was cooling his heels at Her Majesty's Pleasure. What matters now the fate of Drico and the boys. At least justice is still to be found in some quarters of life.

The source of the burghers' joy was the jailing of Noel O'Gara in Yorkshire last week for contempt of court. He was nabbed secretly filming a police officer with his mobile phone, outside a courthouse which was hearing a case in relation to a 32-year-old murder in the area.

O'Gara was dragged before the court and asked to explain himself. He didn't do a good job on that front and was handed two weeks in jail for contempt. With remission and good behaviour . . . despite what the burghers might tell you, Noelly is a man of impeccable behaviour . . . he will be out this weekend, free to return to his country pile outside Athlone, where his Thai wife waits patiently.

What, you may ask, was the talented Mr O'Gara up to? Well, as is his wont, he was pursuing justice in his decades-old quest to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, 16 years after the alleged Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was nabbed and sentenced to life for murdering 13 women. Noel believes that the real Ripper is an acquantiance of his from Offaly, who runs free to wreck havoc, having eluded the cops all these years. On his website, Noel portrays this individual as a large bearded man wearing a butcher's apron and wielding a cleaver.

Last week's contretemps involved a murder case in which Noel believes the defendant is being framed and the real perpetrator is the 'Biffo' butcher. The judge wasn't impressed and sent him down.

His quest to see the tall lady balance her scales has nearly landed him in jail before. As the people of Dartmouth Square are only too aware, justice is something of an obsession with him.

Last year, he bought the square . . . the centrepiece of an oasis of calm in Dublin 6 . . .

for a pittance. Having noted what his more conventional colleagues in the development business are getting away with all over the shop, Noel decided to get in on the act.

He declared he would develop the square, mentioning a creche, or a car park, or even as a base for his tile business.

Far from quaffing, the poor denizens nearly choked on their champers.

Noel closed the gates on what was now his private property. Battlelines were drawn.

The residents even dispatched Michael McDowell and John Gormley to the front.

On one occasion, this columnist donned fatigues and ventured forth to the battleground, only to be met by a gaggle of pupils from Gonzaga College, whose recollections of an encounter with our hero were stunning.

"He took away our square, " one 16-year old complained.

"We used to play football and cricket and badminton but he told us to get out and confiscated our ball. He used coarse language. He had a lot of country traits, " the fifthyear student said.

Country traits? "He was belligerent and he didn't show us any respect." This is what our hero has had to contend with.

This nasty little war nearly landed him in jail, after the High Court berated him for failing to desist selling tiles from a caravan in the centre of the Georgian square.

Through it all, he perseveres.

At the last election he attempted to represent the small man and woman by standing in four constituencies on a planning reform platform. He believes that the property owner should be free to build as he sees fit without any interference from the state. But prophets are not recognised in their own land, or at least not in Dublin South East, where he harvested 29 votes.

But quaff not too soon, for this column predicts that the talented Mr O'Gara will rise again, if not like the phoenix, then at least in the manner of good dough in a hot oven.