On Thursday the 26th of October 1986, Philip Cairns left his Ballyroan Road home after eating his lunch. He was headed back to school. But he never made it there. An intensive search followed, but there were no signs of the 13 year old.

A week later, his school bag was found in a nearby laneway, left there by persons unknown. Despite searches of the Rathfarnham area, including rivers, overgrown areas, large parklands and in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, there was no further sign of the school boy.

What became of Philip Cairns?

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Theme Music:

Quinn’s Song: The Dance Begins Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Additional Music:   Allemande (Sting) by Wahneta Meixsell. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources:

“07. Philip Cairns” Scannal RTE (15 September 2020) Find it here: https://www.rte.ie/player/series/scannal/SI0000001504?epguid=IH000391879&seasonguid=76848680318

Michael Lavery and Tom Reddy, “Gardai step up hunt for schoolboy, 13” in The Evening Herald (28 October 1986) p. 1.

Willie Dillon, “No sign yet of missing student” in The Irish Independent (28 October 1986) p. 3.

Michael Lavery, “A family that waits and prays” in The Evening Herald (29 October 1986) p. 3.

Bairbre Power and Tom Reddy, “Philip – Quiz for pupils” in The Evening Herald (29 October 1986) p. 1.

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Tom Reddy, “Diviner called in to aid boy search” in The Irish Independent (30 October 1986) p. 11.

Bairbre Power and Ken Curran, “First Clue: New mystery as Philip’s bag is found” in The Evening Herald (30 October 1986) p. 1-2.

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Shane Hickey, “Schoolbag may hold DNA clue to disappearance 20 years ago” in The Irish Independent (23 October 2006) p. 9.

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Gerry O’Carroll, “As a detective on the Cairns case, I fear that the new schoolbag DNA angle will prove to be another false hope” in The Evening Herald (5 November 2007) p. 3.

Tom Brady, “New clue prompts gardai to search wood for body of schoolboy Philip” in The Irish Independent (7 May 2009) p. 1.

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“Rain slows search for Philip” in The Irish Independent (21 May 2009) p. 1.

Aoife Carr, “DJ was jailed for sexually assaulting young girls” in The Irish Times (13 June 2016) p. 5.

Kitty Holland, “Concerned citizen in case hopes for closure” in The Irish Times (13 June 2016) p. 5

Colm Keena, “Hundreds march to mark 30 years since Dublin schoolboy disappeared” in The Irish Times (24 October 2016) p. 5.

Kitty Holland, “Cooke’s former radio staff to be interviewed” in The Irish Times (14 June 2016) p. 4.

Vivienne Clarke, “Mother of Philip Cairns only recently accepted he will not come home” in The Irish Times (17 June 2016) p. 6.

Conor Lally, “A ring of individuals have protected this case” in The Irish Times (13 August 2016) p. 6.

Conor Lally, “Gardai believe schoolbag is key to solving disappearance of Cairns” in The Irish Times (16 July 2016) p. 2.