In Castlebar, County Mayo, in 1973, a man named Tim Hayes was buried alive for three days in an effort to raise money for the Castlebar International Song Contest.

The Connaught Telegraph reports that the "corpse" Tim Hayes, from Cobh, County Cork, made international headlines. He had already been buried alive on other occasions but this was his more daring feat.

He was carried in a coffin through the town to his final, albeit temporary, resting place. A Castlebar Urban Council gravedigger dug his grave and he was buried with just two pipes, one for air and one for food, as his connection with the outside world.

His friends and others involved in the committee for the song contest kept vigil over his graveside. All was going to plan until on his third day he sent an SOS that he was gasping for air. He was brought to the surface shaken but unharmed.

Tim vowed that he would repeat the challenge but he was never buried alive again.