Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Beyond the Grave
Former addict from Dublin spending three days underground in a grave to raise addiction awareness
John Edwards has been sober from both drug and alcohol addiction for 27 years.
A 61-YEAR-OLD Dublin man is spending three days underground – in a grave – to raise awareness of addiction issues in Belfast.
John Edwards, himself a former addict, says he is performing the underground vigil at Willowfield church in the east of the city because “too many of my friends have ended up in an early grave”.
He says that he has been inspired to carry out his unusual statement as more than 20 of his friends have died either from addiction or suicide.
He is hoping to, in his own words, “bring words of life from beyond the grave”.
“It is time for the common man to do radical types of outrage to reach to the type of people who are broken who are broken in flats and communities like this one,” he said prior to entering the grave for the first time yesterday afternoon.
“Many of us in Ireland are fed up in religion, but that does not mean we have given up in God,” he added.
Edwards is not just spending the 72 hours in the grave however – he’s also been interred in a (slightly larger than regulation) coffin.
He has been sober from both drug and alcohol addiction for over 20 years.
While in the grave Edwards is speaking to his audience almost constantly via live feeds on his Facebook page, otherwise known as ‘gravechat’.
It is not the first time he has spent three days in a coffin – he performed the same feat in his adopted town of Halifax in the UK last July.
have your say