Buried alive: TG4 to screen film about Mick Meaney's 61-day feat — and what happened next

Mick Meaney, from Ballyporeen in Tipperary, and later of Mitchelstown Co Cork, made global headlines in 1968 when he spent 61 days buried alive

Michael Meaney looking at footage of himself on TV 30 years after he made world headlines in 1968 for spending 61 days buried alive. The new documentary includes archive footage and new interviews including with his daughter, Mary. Irish Examiner Archive: Richard Mills

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.

It was 1968 and the Irish man 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.