The ‘resurrection’ of Tim Hayes from grave under Mayo ballroom
By Tom Gillespie
THE attempt by a 38-year-old Corkman to break his own world record for being buried alive ended prematurely but dramatically 49 years ago with a frantic fight to save his life.
Less than 20 hours after he was buried in a 10-feet deep grave under the Royal Ballroom in Castlebar, the alarm was raised when the bearded Cobh merchant seaman was heard gasping for air in his seven-foot long coffin.
Two hours later, and almost eight days earlier that expected, Hayes was exhumed and rushed to the nearby County Hospital.
The world record attempt, which was to be one of the highlights of that year’s Castlebar International Song Contest festival, was marred by accidents which constantly threatened to bring the exercise to an early end.
Earlier, while parading through Castlebar town on the back of a lorry, the infamous coffin in which the ‘master of macabre’ sat slid off, slightly injuring the occupant.
During his time underground, Hayes became alarmed that the lid of his coffin was beginning to press inward and it took gardaí several hours to insert supports.
While underground, the public flocked to see the spectacle and could talk to the ‘corpse’ through plastic piping.
After spending a ‘cold and sleepless night’, on the Wednesday his burial ended prematurely when festival committee members P.J. Hennelly and Gerry McDonald heard Hayes desperately gasping for air. Ambulance and fire bridge sirens wailed at the scene, but it is generally agreed that had it not been for the swift action of committee member Dermot Fahey, who pumped air into the ‘corpse’, Hayes’ life was in real danger.
Four gravediggers quickly unearthed the grave and Hayes was ‘resurrected’, obviously shook by his harrowing experience.
Even so, he repeatedly asked committee members not to exhume him after receiving oxygen, and later persisted with his intention of returning to his ‘grave’.
The festival committee advised against it and a somewhat dejected Tim Hayes with, in his own words, his ‘reputation seriously dented’, left Castlebar for Wexford and the World Ploughing Championships, where he was to make another attempt.
For Hayes, a quiet, squat figure with a beaming face through a dense beard, it was the first occasion that his interment ended prematurely out of nine attempts.
The whole idea had been born shortly after the Second World War, when, as a merchant seaman, Hayes has visited Hiroshima in Japan and seen the destruction and mangled scene that the dropping of the atom bomb had left.
The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. The bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remains the only use of nuclear weapons in armed conflict. It was suggested that an underground home may prevent radiation worming its way into humans.
The festival committee expressed their gratitude to the swift work of ambulance driver John Denning, fireman Austin Gannon, gravediggers Martin Murphy and Billy O’Malley and the four other gravediggers for their swift action, and also to McTigue Plant Hire for digging the ill-fated grave.
The burial drew varied comment, but probably the exclamation of a local woman shortly after Hayes' ‘resurrection’ beat them all - ‘Sure when I saw him huddled in the coffin, like a frightened rabbit, I realised the people of Castlebar had their first taste of what the end of the world will be like’.
The 1973 song contest was notable in that it was the first time the RTÉ Light Orchestra, under the baton of Colman Pearce, provided backing and for the first time the contest was broadcast live on the radio each evening. The overall winner was the song ‘I’m Gonna Make It’, sung by Joe Cuddy and written by UK songwriters Vince Hill and Ernie Dunstall. It was one of the few songs from Castlebar to feature in the Irish pop charts.
The runner-up composition was ‘Opposite Ends of the World, sung by Mary Spiteri from Malta and written by Joe Vella.
The compere at the final was Mike Murphy and the guest artists were The Wolfe Tones. Earlier in the week the other comperes were Gay Byrne, Larry Gogan and Valerie McGovern
Interestingly, the international appeal of Castlebar for songwriters was that 11 of the 36 songs which qualified for the finals were written by composers living behind the former Iron Curtain - Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.
In the Evening Press of October 6, 1973, I wrote: A British entry took first place in the Castlebar International Song Contest last night. The number ‘I’m Gonna Make It’, sung by Joe Cuddy, won for the composers, singing star Vince Hill and his pianist Ernie Dunstall, both from London, the £1,000 first prize.
Joe, whose home is at Watermill Road, Raheny, was specially chosen by the writers to present the song in Castlebar. They had heard Joe’s long playing record and immediately contacted him to have him sing their entry.