{"id":180504,"date":"2025-11-14T15:07:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/180504\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T15:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:07:12","slug":"what-happened-to-the-dublin-schoolboy-who-went-missing-in-1986-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/180504\/","title":{"rendered":"What happened to the Dublin schoolboy who went missing in 1986? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The disappearance of Dublin teenager Philip Cairns almost 40 years ago remains among the most high-profile missing people cases in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Philip (13) was last seen by his family when he left home in Rathfarnham to return to school after his lunch break on October 23rd, 1986. <\/p>\n

Cairns featured in the news again this week after the death of his mother Alice was announced. <\/p>\n

Mrs Cairns died \u201csuddenly but peacefully\u201d on Tuesday, according to her death notice<\/a>. She was predeceased by her husband, who died in 2014 and was also called Philip.<\/p>\n

She had campaigned for years seeking information about her son, but she died without knowing what happened to him.<\/p>\n

Many theories have since been advanced as to what happened to the schoolboy. However, four decades later, more questions than answers remain.<\/p>\n

In 2016, 30 years after her son disappeared, Mrs Cairns told RT\u00c9<\/a> she had only recently, since her husband\u2019s death, started to accept that her son was not coming back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only in the last year or two that I have come to terms [with the fact] that he won\u2019t be coming back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all the time on my mind. For a long time, we didn\u2019t talk about him; it was too painful. Life had to go on with five other children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always hoped to hear from someone somewhere. My husband was always waiting and hoping, and gave up much quicker than I did. But he held out hope for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhilipPhilip Cairns\u2019s parents Alice and Philip at a press conference in 1986. File photograph: Paddy Whelan\/The Irish Times What happened to Philip?<\/p>\n

October 23rd, 1986, started out like any other day in the Cairns family life.<\/p>\n

Philip, then 13, returned home from his new school, Col\u00e1iste \u00c9anna in Rathfarnham, for lunch. At about 1.30pm, he left the family home on Ballyroan Road to make the short journey back to school on foot. <\/p>\n

He never got there.<\/p>\n

When he didn\u2019t come home from school later that day, his mother went to some of his friends\u2019 houses but nobody had seen him. <\/p>\n

The family hoped he was simply running late but, as the hours passed, reality set in.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed soon launched a missing people appeal and a wide-scale search. <\/p>\n

The country was shocked by the disappearance of a child in broad daylight, so close to home. <\/p>\n

Six days after Philip\u2019s disappearance, his schoolbag was found in a laneway near Col\u00e1iste \u00c9anna. Some of Philip\u2019s books were missing from the bag.<\/p>\n

The laneway in question links Anne Devlin Road and Anne Devlin Drive in Rathfarnham. This area had previously been searched by garda\u00ed, indicating the bag was later intentionally placed there by someone.<\/p>\n

\"GardaGarda Pat Sheehan in a laneway off Anne Devlin Road, Rathfarnham , Co Dublin, where the schoolbag belonging to Philip Cairns was found. File photograph: Kevin McMahon\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Numerous theories have been put forward over the years as to what happened to Philip.<\/p>\n

In 2002, the Sunday Independent published an article which claimed that he was being abused by somebody outside his family and was murdered.<\/p>\n

Speaking in 2015, his brother Eoin said this article \u201cdistracted people from coming forward or thinking back about connections, maybe something strange they noticed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I believe, journalists had undertaken the research, not garda\u00ed. The garda\u00ed are open to pursuing any lines of inquiry \u2013 I would imagine they investigated these allegations,\u201d Eoin told The Journal<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n

The case made headlines again in 2016, when a woman claimed that convicted paedophile Eamon Cooke, the former owner of pirate station Radio Dublin, was involved. <\/p>\n

The woman witness, who was aged nine at the time of the disappearance, claimed she saw Philip lying injured on the ground in Radio Dublin\u2019s studio on the day he disappeared.<\/p>\n

The witness, herself a survivor of abuse, gave a statement to Garda\u00ed in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By that time Cooke was out of prison \u2013 he was serving a sentence for historical child sex abuse \u2013 and was dying of cancer in a hospice in Raheny, north Dublin. Cooke died in June 2016.<\/p>\n

Others have cast doubt<\/a> on Cooke\u2019s alleged involvement in the case.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Philip\u2019s eldest sister Mary said the family was aware of the potential link to Cooke \u201ca long time before it came out \u2026 but ultimately the timeline didn\u2019t match\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AliceAlice Cairns, mother of Philip Cairns, in 2013 with then minister for justice Alan Shatter planting a tree in the grounds of Farmleigh during a ceremony to mark Missing Persons Day. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

In an RT\u00c9 Scannal documentary at the time, she said her brother was \u201ca kind and thoughtful child who got on with everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mary said the family wanted to bring Philip home so they could bury him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour life moves forward in some aspects \u2026 but then there is just this part of our life that has stood still.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would really like to be able to bring Philip home, give him a burial.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, Alice Kearns said she chose to focus on her son rather than the person who took him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just focus on Philip. I wonder what he\u2019d be doing now … It\u2019s very hard to know how there can be a happy ending,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In a previous appeal<\/a> for information, garda\u00ed said people who may have information about Philip\u2019s disappearance \u201cfor whatever reason did not come forward\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n

However, they noted that, \u201cfollowing the passage of time and changing circumstances, these people may now be in a position to assist us\u201d.<\/p>\n