In 1968, Irish labourer Mick Meaney made global headlines by staying buried alive in a coffin for 61 days, but returned to Ireland penniless. The remarkable stunt and its poignant aftermath are told in a new documentary, 'Beo Faoin bhFód' (Buried Alive), to be aired on TG4 on 26 November.
Meaney, a strong and powerfully built Tipperary man, had wanted to become a champion boxer but injury ended that dream. He ended up digging tunnels in London. When an accident briefly trapped him beneath rubble, he remained composed, and another ambition possessed him: to claim the record for the longest time spent buried alive.
On 21 February 1968, wellwishers and TV crews followed his coffin, 6ft 3in long, 2ft 6in wide and lined with foam, in procession through the streets of Kilburn. Meaney was lowered into a pit in a builder's yard. Soil entombed the coffin, save for a pipe for air and through which food and liquid could be lowered. His target was 61 days.
Meaney established a routine: wake at 7am, do exercises, rub ointment on his body, eat, read books and newspapers, and talk to people on a telephone rigged inside his casket. The line connected to a phone at the Admiral Nelson pub, where impresario Michael 'Butty' Sugrue charged patrons for every call. Celebrities such as boxer Henry Cooper conversed with the buried man, but interest waned as weeks passed.
After 61 days, on 22 April, the coffin was dug up and ferried atop a truck, past cheering crowds, back to the pub. When the lid was removed, Meaney, with sunglasses and a beard, grinned. 'I'd like to go for a hundred days more,' he told the press. 'I'm delighted to be the champion of the world.'
Fortune never came. It was alleged that Sugrue swindled his star. A mooted world tour and sponsorship deal with Gillette never materialised. Meaney returned to Ireland penniless. His daughter Mary said: 'He came back without as much as the price of a bottle of milk in his pocket.' No Guinness Book of Records representative recorded his feat, and a rival burial artist disputed his champion credentials.
