As the clock ticks into 2024, this period in the calendar is always one in which predictions are made for what to expect in the year ahead.
It's also a time for reflection back at the dozen months just gone but just like this time last year, let's go further back - a century to be exact - and look back at what the annals of history have to say about the sporting year of 1924...
GAA
The early 1920s was a period in which the events of the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War had a significant impact on the sporting calendar.
Gaelic games was particularly affected but by 1924 that was slowly changing, albeit with some notable exceptions.
Indeed, for the first time since 1919, the All-Ireland hurling final took place within the same calendar year as the rest of its preceding rounds, with the decider between eventual winners Dublin and Galway at Croke Park on 14 December 1924.
However, three months before that, the delayed 1923 final also took place on Jones' Road with Galway triumphing on that occasion against Limerick in a showpiece replete with goals as the Tribesmen won 7-03 to 4-05.
Little did they know it at a time of back-to-back All-Ireland final appearances in '23 and '24, but the Galway hurlers wouldn't become champions again for more than half a century with eight final defeats in the interim period before the duck was broken in 1980.
As for Dublin, they celebrated dual triumphs in 1924 as their footballers narrowly beat Kerry by two points at Croke Park, although that September's decider was in fact for the 1923 championship - the actual 1924 final would not be played until the following year when the Kingdom would turn the tables.
The Irish Independent from 29 September 1924 notes the gap in experience that favoured the three-in-a-row Dubs but acknowledged the spirited performance from the Kerry contingent in front of a reputed 20,000 attendance which included, according to the report, the presence of Austin Stack TD - an All-Ireland winning captain for Kerry in 1904 in his own right and county board president - who had been released in July after a 41-day hunger strike.
SOCCER
The League of Ireland was in its infancy during the 1920s with the 1923-24 season marking its third campaign.
It would prove to be a memorable season for Bohemians who won their first title, as they saw off Shelbourne by four points.
Meanwhile reigning champions Shamrock Rovers finished seventh in a competition reduced from 12 to ten teams from the previous season.
As for what's now known as the FAI Cup, it was Athlone Town's to savour as they edged Cork side Fordsons 1-0 on St Patrick's Day thanks to a goal from Denis 'Dinny' Hannon who would also be part of the midlands club's contingent in what has retrospectively been recognised as the Republic of Ireland's first full international fixtures.
That was as part of the 1924 Football Association of Ireland Free State (FAIFS) team that took part at the Paris Olympics football tournament.
They would beat Bulgaria on 28 May - the first occasion that Irish sportspeople could represent the nation under the Irish tricolour - before exiting the knockout tournament to the Netherlands four days later.
OLYMPICS
Those Paris Games offer a nice symmetry to the upcoming 2024 Games which return to the 'City of Love'.
The 1924 Games were the seventh edition overall but the first for Ireland as an independent nation.
While the footballers got the ball rolling in May, the opening ceremony wasn't until 5 July and overall, Ireland's contingent in Paris also competed in the likes of water polo, boxing, athletics and tennis.
While medals proved elusive on the sporting field, the Olympiad's arts competitions yielded a silver and bronze respectively for Jack B Yeats (mixed painting) and Oliver St. John Gogarty (mixed literature) respectively.
Yeats' painting 'The Liffey Swim' earned him the distinction of being the first person officially representing Ireland to win a medal, while Gogarty's bronze was for his poem Ode to the Tailteann Games which you can read here.
TAILTEANN GAMES
That title was rather apt for Gogarty - a talented soccer player by all accounts in his younger days including for Bohemians - as not only did he win an Olympic medal in 1924, he also won gold at the revived Tailteann Games for a book of poetry called An Offering of Swans.
Similarly to how the rebirth of the Olympics was aimed at evoking a sporting and cultural aspect of Ancient Greece, the Tailteann Games were intended to bring to life an eponymous touchstone from the Ireland prior to the Norman Invasion of the late 12th century.
Delayed briefly due to the aforementioned strife within the country, the 1924 edition would be the first of the modern era, featuring a wide variety of sporting and cultural events, with two more Tailteann Games to follow in 1928 and 1932.
Women's Olympiad
It was also a year that continued the growing trend of promotion of women's sport which had accelerated in the early 1920s.
While Ireland were not represented on this occasion, eight countries took part in the fourth Women's Olympiad which took place in London.
RUGBY
Ireland's Five Nations campaign started and ended on high notes with a home win over France in January and a 13-10 win over Wales in Cardiff just over a month later.
In between those two fixtures, defeats to England and Scotland would ensure a joint-second place finish in the final standings, which marked an improvement on the previous year's yield of one win.
