Buried alive Irish man's vaulting ambition led to 61-day stint underground

They were known as burial artists - people who had themselves buried alive in macabre feats of endurance - and Mick Meaney resolved to be the best there ever was.

- Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent

Michael Sugrue and Meaney embrace after his 'resurrection'

It was 1968 and the Irish labourer had barely a pound to his name, but he believed that if he stayed underground in a coffin longer than anyone else the world would remember his name.

On 21 February that year, wellwishers and TV crews followed his coffin, 6ft 3in long, 2ft 6in wide and lined with foam, in procession through the streets of Kilburn, the heart of Ireland's emigrant community in London, and watched as 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. Meaney's target, to beat the world record and claim fame and fortune, was 61 days.

The remarkable stunt, and its poignant aftermath, is told in a documentary to be aired on the Irish-language TV station TG4 on 26 November. The film, called Beo Faoin bhFód (Buried Alive), has already been screened at festivals. Directed by Daire Collins, it combines interviews with Meaney's family and friends with archival footage of an event that made global headlines.