The bag of a Dublin school boy who went missing walking back to school in Rathfarnham and has never been found. (Philip Cairns missing since October 1986)
by Larrydog
The bag of a Dublin school boy who went missing walking back to school in Rathfarnham and has never been found. (Philip Cairns missing since October 1986)
by Larrydog
23 comments
That poor boy.
Surely somebody knows something, so sad.
The bag has never been found? It’s right there.
The story of him going missing scared the bejesus out of my parents and their friends and then us. I think of him every year around the time he went missing.
I just hope his family find out what happened to him.
Such a sad case, his poor family never got closure. The strongest theory is that convicted paedophile Eammon Cooke was involved. I believe more recently the Gardai dig up a section of Grange Golf club after a tip, but unfortunately nothing was discovered.
Weird I just came across this old documentary on Facebook last night. Really strange factors surrounding the case… locals/ cults etc
Lived in a neighboring area. My mam was petrified.
The licence plate of the car spotted at the scene that that fella wrote down and then threw out could have blown the whole thing wide open. Such a horrible twist in the story. Might have been nothing but a real “what could have been”.
That Gareth O’Callaghan gowl was back posting about this recently too
I find it hard to believe it’s not someone local who took him and knows where his body is. I doubt very much it’s some randomer who was passing through Ballyroan at the time. Also, strange it’s a once off. I mean, thankfully it is but you would think there would be more cases locally?I feel it was a local tragic accident that happened and was covered up.
I worked in Fred Hanna’s schoolbook department back in the 80’s where we also did 2nd hand schoolbooks (those of a certain age will remember). I remember his dad coming in to ask if we kept records of who we bought books from as he was looking to see if whomever did this, might have tried to make a couple of quid from it. We didn’t keep records of the exact books we bought and didn’t ask for ID so no help but that man was broken, just looking for a scrap of hope.
Harrowing.
I wonder if it were a couple of boys his own age that did it?
In 1986 we would never imagine children could do terrible crimes, not until the James Bulger case in 1994.
The leaving of the school bag in the lane days after his disappearance, is something that a guilty young teenager would do.
I do hope that they find his body. At this stage, it is all the family want.
So so so sad, the monsters that did this deserve a reserved place in hell.
The guard straight up raw dogging the only piece of physical evidence…
Irrelevant to the topic but there is a bang of 1980s off that guard’s get up and facial hair without even checking the date.
There was something strange about this disappearance. He’d be 52 if he was still here. Never forgot Philip Cairns.
My mum’s first cousin, so sad.
That pedo DJ dude killed him
Had a couple of those bags at least.. one covered in Iron Maiden patches
Remember it well. I was the exact same age, going to school in Dublin, had the exact same school bag. The faux denim bag with the two straps. I’ve often thought about him over the years..
If it happened today it would be handled much differently, they would start looking much closer to home. Dodgy cars and strangers would not take priority. Men he knew in houses close to his would be the focus of attention. Chances are he was lured into a house by someone he knew and his remains are still there.
I had that exact same canvas bag.
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