In a year dominated by foot-and-mouth disease and the awful events in New York and Afghanistan, sport provided some of the rare feelgood moments that lifted the spirits and warmed the heart in 2001. Against a tide of almost unrelenting bad news, the achievements of Irish sportsmen and women, nationally and internationally, once again underlined the important place sport occupies in the Irish psyche and the vital distraction it can provide.
Although foot-and-mouth disease disrupted almost every activity in spring, the effects on sport were shortlived. The main casualties of the enforced cancellations - racing and rugby - rebounded in spectacular style. Cheltenham may have been lost to foot-and-mouth, but Ireland's leading horse trainer, Aidan O'Brien, captured the Epsom and Irish Derbies with his wonder horse, Galileo, before going on to set a world record of Group One race victories in the autumn.
Not to be outdone, the Irish rugby team celebrated one of its best seasons in decades with four wins out of five in the Six Nations Championship before the IRFU decided someone must pay the price for this success. Coach, Warren Gatland, was duly dismissed as sporting administrators once again flexed their muscles to the bewilderment of the sporting public.
The GAA also had reason to celebrate with the revamped All-Ireland football championship attracting record crowds and huge TV audiences throughout the summer. That success offset the justified criticism the association suffered at its congress in April when it rejected a request to open Croke Park to other sports - less than 12 hours after being handed £60 million of public money.
The disappointment of not seeing three Irish golfers take their place on the European Ryder Cup team in September, because of the reluctance of the US team to travel to Britain, was amply compensated for by the individual performances of Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, who all won European Tour events in 2001.
But one achievement overshadowed all others in the past year. The Republic of Ireland's qualification for next summer's World Cup finals was epic in its nature, with Mick McCarthy's team going through their ten-match qualification campaign undefeated and in the process knocking out Holland, one of the superpowers of world football.
There is little doubt that when the Republic lines out in Japan next June, there will be a giddy escapism and wonderful sense of pride that only sport can generate across all sections of Irish society.