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But had Martin ridden out the storm - difficult in a football culture that demands everything yesterday - perhaps he would have been the best person to mount a promotion challenge.

But there's an increasingly resurgent and vibrant community spirit brought about by the resurrection of the story of perhaps its greatest son.

"We went to tender on that in the beginning of this year and unfortunately we didn't get any successful responses. That perhaps demonstrates this is an issues beyond Northern Ireland," he said.

Though this was well behind the launch of a sci-fi drama, Halo: Season One, which had 4.2 million views in the same period, experts point out that such comparisons are perhaps unfair.

In fact, perhaps the biggest takeaway of the first year of the son’s appearance is the enormous effect it has had on the father.