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PHILIP CAIRNS WAS on his way back to school one afternoon 30 years ago when he disappeared without a trace.
On 23 October, 1986, Philip came home for lunch from Coláiste Éanna school in Rathfarnham at 12.45pm.
The 13-year-old schoolboy left his home on the Ballyroan Road at about 1.30pm to go back to the school. He was never seen again.
A search was launched for Philip once it was discovered that he was missing. One week after his disappearance his schoolbag was found in a laneway close to his house.
It had been raining over the week and the schoolbag was dry and placed in a very visible spot, leading gardaí to believe to it had been planted.
Philip has never been found and the investigation into his disappearance has been ongoing for the past 30 years.
Throughout the years there have been many new leads and reported sightings that the gardaí have followed up on, but never to any avail.
Detective Sergeant Tom Doyle who has been in charge of the case for the past 20 years spoke to TheJournal.ie last year in relation to the investigation.
“We don’t know what happened, it’s a total mystery but I’m satisfied people still have information,” he said at the time.
New developments
The case has surfaced and resurfaced in the media throughout the years since Philip went missing.
In 2002, the Sunday Independent published an article which claimed that Philip was being abused by somebody outside his family and was murdered after he confided in another man about the abuse.
The article claimed that this man was also abusing children and alerted Philip’s abuser, who took against Philip.
It stated that Philip was buried in a pond that is now built over with a tennis court and nursing homes.
In 2009, the entrance to a wooded area on Whitechurch Road in Rathfarnham was sealed off and searched when gardaí received a new lead. However, nothing was discovered.
In June of this year the case was brought into the spotlight again as fresh information around Philip’s disappearance emerged.
RTÉ reported that gardaí had linked the disappearance of Cairns to the convicted paedophile Eamon Cooke – who operated a pirate radio station in Dublin at the time.
Superintendent Peter Duff would not confirm that Cooke was being actively investigated by gardaí, but said that there were multiple lines of inquiry open.
At a later press conference, gardaí said that shortly after an appeal for information on the case in 2011, a woman had come forward.
However, it had taken until May of this year for the woman to give information to the gardaí in relation to the investigation.
Gardaí would not confirm, but it was reported that the woman – who was a child at the time of his disappearance – had come forward with new information linking Cooke with Cairns.
RTÉ reported at the time that gardaí believed that a number of children may have been coerced into placing Philip’s bag in the laneway after his disappearance.
Cooke was questioned by gardaí at a hospice before his death about the incident. He was thought to have confirmed aspects of the woman’s statement, but refused to say where Cairns was buried.
The bag was tested for DNA, but it was announced in August that no forensic evidence was found that could link Philip to Cooke. However, it is believed that he is still a suspect in the case.
Gardaí issued a fresh appeal this weekend for anyone with information on Philip’s whereabouts to come forward.
“From our recent enquiries I believe there are people who were young at the time and may have information in relation to Philip’s school bag and for whatever reason did not come forward,” Superintendent Duff said.
I am conscious that following to the passage of time and changing circumstances that these people may now be in a position to assist us. I want to reassure anyone who comes forward that they will be treated sensitively and discreetly by investigating Gardaí.
Social media campaign
Since the case of Philip going missing returned to the media spotlight early this summer, a social media campaign around his disappearance has been gaining increasing momentum.
The campaign and those supporting it believes that a narrative around Philip’s disappearance has been suppressed by powerful people.
The campaign, spearheaded by 4fm radio presenter Gareth O’Callaghan, alleges that a paedophile ring that was active in south Dublin at the time of Philip’s disappearance was involved with his disappearance.
O’Callaghan – who is a distant cousin of Cairns – alleges that a cover up into his disappearance took place, due to the high profile nature of some people he says were involved.
30 years after he went missing, many unanswered questions and mystery remains around the disappearance of Philip Cairns.
His family has had a tough life in the years since Philip went missing. Two years ago, Philip Cairns senior passed away without ever finding out what happened to his son.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie last year, his brother Eoin said the family may never find out what happened to him.
“It’s always going to leave a mark, a shadow that he is not there to share the big celebrations – weddings, graduations, christenings – but you do have to try to build and get on with your life,” he said.
We’d dearly love Philip to come home but in some ways you have to get on with the business of living, I’ve been very thankful for the life I had.
Anyone with information can contact gardaí on the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666111 or any Garda station.
With reporting from Cliodhna Russell
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Even if they completely eliminate the virus on this island it only takes one person getting off a plane or boat and we’re back at it again. It can’t be stopped. Even with a vaccine as not all will take it. There’s no easy answer except to open up again protecting the vulnerable and closing again locally where necessary. The only thing that’s going to get us out of this is educated common sense.
@Patrick Agnew: and that’s an educated comment!
@JGD: I miss your profile photo.
@Patrick Agnew: id say youre great craic at a barmitzvah
@Patrick Agnew: 1000%
@Patrick Agnew: Careful Patrick, the Covidphiles won’t like that kind of sensible talk
@Patrick Agnew: as a follow up comment:
Between April 12, 2009, and April 10, 2010, the CDC estimated Swine Flu influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 caused 60.8 million illnesses, 273,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths in the U.S.
To this day, swine flu is killing people daily (including in Ireland) but the world has moved on and is treating it as a fact of life. That’s where we are heading with Civid-19. We just have to weather the storm. We can only do it by using common sense though.
@Ronan Dunne: you just summed yourself up there.
@Ronan Dunne: Are you actually Jewish or do you just think your comment is funny?
@Patrick Agnew: speaking of common sense! If one was to take the vaccine they wouldn’t need to worry (or very much lessened).
@GIFman: Covidphiles that is a sad thing to say
Great news
@Sean: it’s a Monday though. Usually much higher the next few days.
@offtheball: Yes- the acting CMO said at the press conference that tomorrow will be higher
Jesus, must be one of the lowest days yet. Didn’t expect that.
@The Guy is Here: why not? The curve has remained flat for weeks if not months now despite the scaremongering of some.
@Kenneth Long: was it not in the mid 30s a couple of days ago?
@Kenneth Long: well it would be very normal and justifiable for it to be sitting into mid teens low 20s during the reopening of the country.
@IAmTheTruth: 34 once and 32 once. It was I teens and the low twenties the days either side of those days. You’ve got to look at the average over a period of time, not individual days.
@IAmTheTruth: it was and mid 30′s isnt that high. The curve remained flat regardless, the reaction to those 30 plus figures from a week ago was well over the top imo. Quite a few businesses will go under as a consequence.
@Kenneth Long: |The curve was flattened through a lock down and a lot of other techniques that people are now not using.
Open all the pubs
@John Knuckle Bone Macken: Hey that’s my line!!
@John Knuckle Bone Macken: u can have more than 1 tool in a box
@John Knuckle Bone Macken: ye in August what’s the hurry
@john phelan: Offer the man some Sudocrem, that was scalding :-)
Waiting for the “Monday cases are always low” brigade, Brilliant work!
@Santi Charlie Bravo: the doom and gloomers are silent
@StephenT: petition to stop using the term “doom and gloom”
@Santi Charlie Bravo: had you listened to the briefing you wouldn’t be celebrating.
Says alot about all those Americans coming across the Atlantic covered in Covid 19 . We tend to love drama and doom and gloom here
@jerry slattery: yep those pesky Americans coming over here bringing Covid to our shores. There’s plenty of heads on here talking absolute Bollo€ks
That’s great news we need to keep the cases down
Pubs lads
Open the pubs!!!
Oh dear, how are they going to continue with the fearmongering. Perhaps they’ll come up with a new virus or start talking about 3rd and 4th waves. Ps: The rest of Europe is open for living
@Mark McAuley: and cases going up on the Continent……
@Anne Busher Collins: no they aren’t! Numbers on the continent are staying steady, have been for some time and there isn’t any sign of a second wave as bad as the first!
It’s going in the right direction. However, to quote Dr. Cox from Scrubs “statistics mean nothing to the individual”. Numbers fluctuating is normal. We need to find a balanced perspective between optimism and realism. This thing won’t be going away for a while but we need to get on with our lives albeit more cautiously.
hopfully numbers stay this low…
@Jennifer Kelly: but if they don’t we shouldn’t panic like last week and slow down the reopening of the country.
Great to see no deaths… As I mentioned before the daily rate tends to fluctuate, tomorrow could see a rise and the day after could be low again, I think the most important thing is for people not to panic with constant predictions of second waves and demonising people, it’ll go up and down for quite some time to come.
Martin and FF playing a blinder
@tirnanog1979: surely your not being serious here
@Jonny: He is… And don’t call him surely!
@RayChore: ha that made me LOL, great film
@Jonny: I just wanted to sound as deluded as the FG crew letting on that Leo and Simon played a blinder
(Not related to title)
But why are the borders not closed.Like I got my summer job back and the only people refusing or not wearing masks are foreigners.I think we have a great chance of completing suppressing the virus nationally but we keep running the risks of importing new infections.
(Rant over and I know I’m not an expert.)
@WESTY: because people still need to travel for work, to see family, for medical reasons etc. Also how do you know that those non-Irish people don’t live here?
@WESTY: @WESTY: what you did there is not a rant . It has another name . Since I can’t tell people’s nationalities by looking At them I don’t go making statistics in my head if they’re “ foreigners and if so do you live here “ or asking to close the borders .
@WESTY: It would be political suicide for any government to stop people coming in from Northern Ireland / closing the border.
@Sam Harms: When there telling you what hotels they’re staying in and what are good places to visit.
@Isabel Oliveira: Sorry foreign tourists who are actually quite easy to make out.
@WESTY: do they wear yellow stars?
@WESTY: How ??
Shinner Bots in meltdown
So some cases are linked to fast food outlets and supermarkets..can they not tell people which ones so people can stay clear until it is contained or at least know if they’ve been in those premises lately?
@Del Bear: where do supermarkets come mentioned ?
@Del Bear: where is the evidence that any person ever caught covid in a supermarket in Ireland ?
@Michael Waldron: It says in the article there have been outbreaks linked to fast foods and supermarkets. Presumably the acting CMO would not have said that without evidence?
@Mairead Jenkins: Any idea how many cases were caused by visiting a supermarket ?
New Zealand health officials ruled out mandatory mask wearing in supermarkets as they found no evidence of transmission in that environment . We are going to be wearing them for the next 2 years in supermarkets so wondering where our officials found specific evidence to differ from NZ ?
@Michael Waldron: Good question, and he didn’t elaborate .
@Isabel Oliveira: At the briefing, construction fast-food outlets and supermarkets
@Michael Waldron: it’s staff …..
@Mairead Jenkins: Interesting that on the first day supermarket mask wearing is mandatory he mentions them as a source ( on a day when we have only 6 cases and most of them are meant to be the dreaded Americans !).
I’d wear my cap backwards in supermarkets if the evidence showed it will reduce a number of cases that are occurring there already ..
my sister lives in Auckland and she said masks never became mandatory in shops, just on public transport.
I just hope we haven’t signed up for possibly 2 years of wearing masks in supermarkets when it may have little or no effect as the NZ health team decided.
@Michael Waldron: NZ also mandatory quarantine all arrivals for 14 days and we don’t…I guess it’s not an exact science. All 26 of their currently active cases are in quarantine, and they’ve been that way for weeks- they effectively have no community transmission
@Anne Busher Collins: I read where there was very few cases of staff in Aldi Lidl Tesco catching covid .. it struck me as surprising given the amount of time they spend interacting with public. Also they worked for weeks without distance or Perspex protection in Feb & March but yet virtually no cases. One could surmise that covid just doesn’t transmit in a supermarket environment .. possibly because you need to be 15 mins in close proximity to catch it?
@Anne Busher Collins: thank you just read the updated news .
@Michael Waldron: fed up of NZ with their all blacks lives matter.
@Isabel Oliveira: Tonight on news reports but when asked about it none of them would give further information. Unless I missed it. Supermarkets were open all the time and no problems. Don’t know where they are coming up with this and why they wouldn’t elaborate further.!!
@Michael Waldron: Masks are actually not mandatory yet. A Government Covid advert in yesterdays Independent states in big black letters masks mandatory on public transport . In a smaller paragraph it says they are “asking”people to wear them in retail establishments.
If you can’t eliminate the common cold or influenza then how can Covid be either
Everyone staying in the last few days waiting on the green list.
Pints pints pints.
Close dublin down:)
@Richard Brogan: Dublin pays for a lot of the country, someone has to foot the bill
Green list please!!!
@Seriousnojoke: For what? It’s not like any restriction is enforced.
@8-Bit-Relic:
Except you’re probably not going to be insured if you travel despite government recommendation not to. If you have ticked the optional extra box on the travel insurance policy which does cover “Disruption /Catastrophe” events then your in the clear.
@8-Bit-Relic: Need to know for sure if I can travel to Germany in two weeks. Not for holiday though.
@Kevin: What does that have with the recommendation? The government made clear that they won’t recommend travel even with the green list.
The green list in the currently suggested form has 0 legal effect and is just a waste of time.
@Seriousnojoke: Travel to Germany if you have to. The situation is better organised over there and in a worst case scenario you would have access to better medical care.
@Seriousnojoke: you can travel to Germany today if you consider it essential. The Green List makes no difference to travel as the advice looks like it may remain against anything but essential travel. All that happens is that upon your return you will or will not have to self isolate (quarantine) upon return if Germany is or is not on the Green List.
I add that they said the list would be updated – so it is possible that countries could be removed from the list as well as added. But we will see. Hopefully they will remove the travel advice for the green list countries – but that might raise a new problem in the event of a country being removed from the list.
It’s over.
If they closed the building site why aren’t the supermarket and fast food outlet both named and closed as with the building site.
@Anthony Whelan: Maybe they have enough staff left to sanitise the places and run them?
The construction site might need specific skills, or simply have more down with it, & be harder to clean up.
@Anthony Whelan: don’t worry any businesses that feel left out of the cluster club, hairdressers gyms and nail bars you too will have your day. Must’ve realised travel was a losing battle and moving through their list now. Why aren’t the new cases in nursing homes mentioned?
@Fiona Fitzgerald: not sure. A lady on radio last week said she’d to close her business after 1 of the girls tested positive. All had to be tested and not allowed reopen till all results back. But still had to close as the site did.
@Anthony Whelan: Depends on the size of outbreak. 1 positive from 3 or 4 staff, probably closed. 1 person from supermarket with 40 staff, probably open as not all staff would have worked with the confirmed case, and so they could have enough staff not deemed close contacts to operate. 20 cases on a site is quite a large cluster, hence closed, no matter how many other lads could have worked on.
Number of tests completed and % infection rate has to accompany the number of new cases or the information is meaningless.
#lockdownnow
Always lower on a monday
@jay bernard: Yes. The acting CMO , per RTE, has just said cases will be higher tomorrow.
Calm down everybody it’s Monday.
Open the pubs
Just read in a previous article that a building site has been closed down because of 20 cases of Covid19. Now, two articles under and they’re reporting 6 new cases. What happened to the other 14. ?
@John Brendan Mullen: the 20 cases could be over the last few days and maybe through contact tracing and voluntary testing. Just guessing but it is a logical explanation – maybe one case on Monday and 4 on Tuesday and 5 on Wednesday and 10 between Thursday and Saturday… making a total of 20 detected cases of workers on the same building site.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: that makes sense. The first bit of sense I have encountered in a long time.
Which supermarket and fast food? Pls.
Dr Ronany Glynn.. Does anyone proof read articles before posting??
All going well, back on track to where we were 3 weeks ago.
@Joe_X: And hopefully with three weeks of solid economic activity under the country’s belt.
Oh Close the Pubs that are serbmving food why dont ye
EVERYONE PANIC, PANIC, PANIC!!!
In fairness, well done all, keep it up – poor George Lee will have nothing to be miserable about now.
Clusters in workplaces; construction, fast-food outlets and supermarkets !!!!
They look at the 7 day average. The average MOM is down. I don’t think the pubs should be closed but I have seen a lot of people getting lazy in terms of simple stuff like washing their hands when entering and exiting premises. They (the government) will be under huge pressure if the 7 day average is down this week, it will be interesting to hear what is the narrative then.
What about the 20 workers on the Dublin building site?
@Michael Clinton: it’s closed down
@Anne Busher Collins:
Have they sealed the 20 workers in concrete, or do they not count.
I wonder how many they have infected?
@Michael Clinton: The figures they report, are only as they found them and realisedthem. These construction workers could have been found over the course of several days, the the fact they all work together may have only come to light today. It’s like how denotifications work when reported (in my mind anyway). I know we all come along and check worldometer to see the denotifications and subtract it from that day’s total. But the real date that it should have been could have been a week or 2 ago, but its easier to just subtract from that days total. So say today’s number of 6 had 1 case denotified, we start saying 5. But in reality, it may actually be 6 today, and the denotification may really be last Saturday’s. Could be the same for the counting of these construction workers.
Twenty cases confirmed at a Dublin building site?
The UK has changed the way it reports deaths, 580 new cases 12 deaths, joke
@Brendan O’Donoghue: ay least they have amended them now. They were over estimating them lately with people that had had Covid 19 earlier in the year died later of unrelated causes. It’s a positive point . Firstly for the obvious that the less lives the virus takes the better and secondly because we need accurate statistics to work with in order to fight it . It also seems to be the trend that the June and July surges in Europe are indeed causing less morbidity thankfully.
@Isabel Oliveira: I agree, I was following this and it seems that the UK was again not following WHO guidelines which are clear that only people with an active covid-19 infection should be included unless there were another reason such as trauma. People who have recovered should not be included. However I suspect that most health services were not equipped to provide the stats necessary when this all started.
have your say