Philip Cairns' Murder finally confirmed?

Going Forward

What was the connection/relationship with Philip and Cooke?

Philip is described as being quiet, etc, but that wouldn't have precluded him from having an avid interest in radio.

I wonder do any family members recall him ever being particularly impressed by/or being a fan of Radio Dublin?

Or would such an interest have been frowned upon?

Maybe he kept it to himself.

Even those working in it would surely have noticed if he had been around regularly, rather than the one time that has been reported, which would explain how he was known to Cooke?

It's just in the context of the alternative which is that he was a random victim of Cooke's.

How did Cooke know him?

Going Forward

What was the connection/relationship with Philip and Cooke?

Philip is described as being quiet, etc, but that wouldn't have precluded him from having an avid interest in radio.

I wonder do any family members recall him ever being particularly impressed by/or being a fan of Radio Dublin?

Or would such an interest have been frowned upon?

Maybe he kept it to himself.

Even those working in it would surely have noticed if he had been around regularly, rather than the one time that has been reported, which would explain how he was known to Cooke?

It's just in the context of the alternative which is that he was a random victim of Cooke's.

How did Cooke know him?

Allyall

It's quite a big leap to imagine that Philip had been at the Radios station more than once, as it was quite a distance. But it seems that if he is the same Philip that the letter is about, he had been.
Unless Cooke was also an out and out liar, or his sick acts have been jumbled up in his head.

I think it's far more likely that Cooke saw him going back to school when Cooke was driving to or back from a mast he had in the Dublin Mountains, or he may also have decided to go out and grab someone away from his locality - seeing as he may have been going to prison for a long time in a couple of days.

Going Forward

Allyall wrote: »

It's quite a big leap to imagine that Philip had been at the Radios station more than once, as it was quite a distance. But it seems that if he is the same Philip that the letter is about, he had been.
Unless Cooke was also an out and out liar, or his sick acts have been jumbled up in his head.

I think it's far more likely that Cooke saw him going back to school when Cooke was driving to or back from a mast he had in the Dublin Mountains, or he may also have decided to go out and grab someone away from his locality - seeing as he may have been going to prison for a long time in a couple of days.

Who knows.

Seems bizarre to think he spotted Philip randomly and picked him and killed him.

The first mention of an interest in boys that I've read about, and it's Philip.

But it is possible.

When was the last time AGS said anything official, weeks ago?

This damning confession "letter", weird how someone has only gotten access to it right now.

Cooke was reportedly reported as being a suspect years ago.

The inaction of AGS was heavily criticised by Mrs. Copley in the documentary.

StephenHendry

the stuff they found at the Dublin mountains could be very significant , it would appear Philip mentioned in the letter by cooke is indeed Philip cairns which if Philip knew him then it would explain why Philip would have got into his car the day he went missing

Fleawuss

StephenHendry wrote: »

the stuff they found at the Dublin mountains could be very significant , it would appear Philip mentioned in the letter by cooke is indeed Philip cairns which if Philip knew him then it would explain why Philip would have got into his car the day he went missing

What have they found at the Dublin mountains?

As it stands then it seems that PC visited the radio station several times without the knowledge of his family. As it stands it seems that he was not noticed by anyone else there even after his disappearance was broadcast. There is a lot to come out yet in this case.

Kamili

Going Forward wrote: »

Cooke was reportedly reported as being a suspect years ago.

The inaction of AGS was heavily criticised by Mrs. Copley in the documentary.

Thats interesting, didn't watch the documentary, but I strongly believe Cooke was already a suspect long before his death and nothing was done.

Stasi 2.0

Fleawuss wrote: »

What have they found at the Dublin mountains?

They're probably still trawling through it and/or looking for more buried containers. Cooke was known to have a serious habit for hoarding junk.

Kamili

Stasi 2.0 wrote: »

They're probably still trawling through it and/or looking for more buried containers. Cooke was known to have a serious habit for hoarding junk.

I don't think they've started yet, last I heard they were talking about getting the area scanned but hadn't actually done anything.

No containers have been unearthed.

The note was found when a relative of Cooke's was going through his belongings after his death.

Fleawuss

Stasi 2.0 wrote: »

They're probably still trawling through it and/or looking for more buried containers. Cooke was known to have a serious habit for hoarding junk.

Hang on a minute. This case has been bedevilled by inaccurate reports and contradictory reports and a lot else. The letter was found in Cooke's belongings in a 24 hour storage facility.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/sorry-what-philip-gardai-investigating-8321037

I have seen no report about anything found anywhere else.

Stasi 2.0

RE: The delays on scanning the land. As far as Im aware GPR is a serious bit of kit. It may be the case that the equipment has to be obtained on hire or loan (possibly from abroad)

Fleawuss wrote: »

This case has been bedevilled by inaccurate reports and contradictory reports and a lot else.

Amen !

1968

From Broadsheet.ie:

"Following our post on the Philip Cairns case and a follow up post on the death of John Horgan many have asked about a sacristan mentioned in the Cairns timeline.

Thirteen days after Philip’s disappearance the body of Brendan Houlihan was discovered in the Royal Canal in Phibsborough, Dublin 7

Brendan, 26, was attached to St Columba’s Chuch, Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.

A sacristan arranges the liturgical books, vestments, and other items necessary in the celebration of Mass.

Brendan had been sacristan for eight years at St Columba’s and, before that, an altar boy. News reports described him as ‘quiet and shy’.

On the afternoon of his death Brendan had been checking the baptismal register for Philip Cairns’ name, according to then parish priest Monsignor Tom Fehily."

Link : http://www.broadsheet.ie/2016/06/29/killing-the-sacristan/

Samaris

Going Forward wrote: »

This damning confession "letter", weird how someone has only gotten access to it right now.

Worth saying that just after someone dies is the clearing out of the personal belongings. It's exactly the time that long-buried documents and private letters come to light, in fairness.

Fleawuss wrote: »

Hang on a minute. This case has been bedevilled by inaccurate reports and contradictory reports and a lot else. The letter was found in Cooke's belongings in a 24 hour storage facility.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/sorry-what-philip-gardai-investigating-8321037

I have seen no report about anything found anywhere else.

Yeah, there's some confusion arising there, as there's also been talk of a possible buried container on some land that Cooke owned. There was hope that the body might be found there, although it equally seems a bit unlikely. Someone's made a link between the buried containers line and this one, which is inaccurate.

Allyall

Samaris wrote: »

Worth saying that just after someone dies is the clearing out of the personal belongings. It's exactly the time that long-buried documents and private letters come to light, in fairness.

Yeah, there's some confusion arising there, as there's also been talk of a possible buried container on some land that Cooke owned. There was hope that the body might be found there, although it equally seems a bit unlikely. Someone's made a link between the buried containers line and this one, which is inaccurate.

I'm sure I read somewhere that it was one of Cookes daughters that found the letter when she was clearing out/sorting through his stuff.

I don't think any of the containers that are believed to have been buried have been uncovered yet.
The letter could say a lot, as could all of his other documents, as they will all be only coming to light (if they are released) over the coming weeks.

Kamili

1968 wrote: »

Link : http://www.broadsheet.ie/2016/06/29/killing-the-sacristan/

the comments on that piece are really interesting too, particularly Veronica's links and details about the Macushla revolt and Gardai denying involvement in child abuse.
http://www.policehistory.com/macushla.html

I also didn't know that Philip Cairn's neighbour John McGloughlin went missing never to be found too.

Kamili

Allyall wrote: »

I'm sure I read somewhere that it was one of Cookes daughters that found the letter when she was clearing out/sorting through his stuff.

I don't think any of the containers that are believed to have been buried have been uncovered yet.
The letter could say a lot, as could all of his other documents, as they will all be only coming to light (if they are released) over the coming weeks.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/sorry-what-philip-gardai-investigating-8321037

Sadistic paedophile Eamon Cooke may have confessed to killing missing schoolboy Philip Cairns in a chilling note found after his death.

It has been claimed a handwritten letter discovered by a Cooke family member in a Dublin lock-up was handed to gardai two days after the 79-year-old died in a hospice last month.

It’s understood detectives investigating the cold case are now trying to determine if the note, which states its author was “sorry for what I did to Philip”, was referring to the 13-year-old who disappeared three decades ago.

A source close to the Cooke family told the Irish Mirror that along with the note, hundreds of video tapes, mini discs and documents were also found in the storage unit in West Dublin.

The source said: “A member of his family came across one of his storage units and they were going through it and came across a letter that said ‘Sorry to Phillip for everything that happened’.

Allyall

The letter was believed to have been written while he was in prison.
That family member must have found a lot of other stuff before they came across the letter..


Or they may have know it was there, and had to find it first.

tayto lover

My God there's a lot of 1 + 1 = 6 in this thread. Lads jumping to conclusions and conspiracies all over the place.

Losty Dublin

This should be a master class in hyperbole, hearsay and repeated unproven innuendo

http://www.sundayworld.com/news/news/free-captain-of-evil-book-in-this-weeks-sunday-world

1968

Gareth O'Callaghan - Facebook post (12 July 2016)


Link : https://www.facebook.com/gareth.ocallaghan.1

My thanks to those brave individuals who have contacted me confidentially with their private views and information on what they believe happened to Philip Cairns back in October 1986. Your information is strictly between you and me. I appreciate you trusting me and sharing your thoughts.
I will continue to write here about Philip. It's very important to keep his name alive and relevant, particularly when you consider that the gardai seem to think that the stories about Eamon Cooke's involvement are relevant. It makes me wonder why they are getting caught up in such media distractions.

And while we're referring to the Cooke connection - whatever happened with the school bag DNA investigation that we were promised the outcome of weeks ago? And what about the major excavation plans in the field above in the Dublin mountains where he was supposed to have hidden a large container?

The latest nonsense is that a 'death note' left by Eamon Cooke apologised for what he did to Philip 30 years ago. It was rather conveniently 'discovered in a lock-up' after he died. The tabloid that published this on their front page ought to ashamed for believing it in the first place.

However I do believe that the individual directly involved in the ultimate reason for Philip's abduction on the afternoon of the 23rd October 1986 is long dead. I believe he was a local priest who was well known as someone who preyed on young boys. Ironically there is no longer any trace of him in the records of the Dublin dioceses (or anywhere on search engines on the internet). I even rang their archive section looking to find out more about him. They promised to email me back information within 24 hours. Almost two weeks later I'm still waiting. I'm not very surprised.

I also believe there was a local school teacher involved, as well as a garda, and a swimmer, and a local shopkeeper. It's also my understanding that there may have been a local newspaper recycling initiative with its opportunity to fundraise that young boys from the local primary school were encouraged to become involved in.

This is information that is slowly coming forward. We have to remember it is almost 30 years since Philip vanished. Most of the evidence back then was focused on the local secondary school; but I believe that it was some of the boys from the local national school who were the ones who were subjected to abuse by a group of local men who have continued to protect and shield each other in the years that have come and gone since then.

Some of these men are now dead. Most of this remaining small group is now dwindling away rapidly. While some of them are still in their 60s, mostly they are in their 70s; and a couple of them have moved into their 80s. They are slowly reaching that point in their lives where they are coming face to face with their own mortality, as in they are dying.

For those who are on the final stretch, carrying this awful secret for 30 years must now be a huge burden on their conscience. They must be trying so hard to make peace with God because of what they believe might lie ahead of them. The fact of shielding the killer of Philip Cairns can't be half as distressing anymore, after all of those years, as what they must fear comes once they die.
I also believe that this dwindling few individuals are being protected by others - wives, children, former abused, and other younger people who just want the past to go away.

It's worth remembering tonight that the permanent resolve that someone once became sworn to in order to protect a terrible, shocking secret weakens with time and the beckoning years.

The idea of keeping a horrible secret until you die becomes unacceptable the closer you get to dying; and when you slowly realise that you finally have become one of those in the last few who are still alive - that you finally want to release that awful secret so that you can leave this life and face the next with a sense of peace and acceptance - then it must be worth asking if it's really worth tormenting yourself any longer.

Gareth O'Callaghan - Facebook post (16 July 2016)

The world that Philip Cairns felt so threatened by for many years is becoming much clearer in recent weeks. It is a world that continues to get smaller because the people who controlled it are all getting older and dying. Thanks to a number of individuals who have given me crucial information in recent days, we are slowly threading together a timeline of valuable insights as to what led up to Philip's disappearance.

There have been many stories and theories in the years that have passed since Philip vanished in October 1986 - as to what might have happened to him. But one fact I have always been sure of is that someone out there knows exactly what happened; and today we are much closer to finding out what really happened. Much of this is brand new information and I am grateful to those who have been brave enough to share it with me.

What follows here will no doubt be difficult to read if you have been abused by someone in the past. I need to say that at the outset because I am aware that there is information here that will deeply upset many people. Some will chose not to believe it; others will feel hurt and uncomfortable by memories it will bring up. Hopefully it might also help some individuals to heal from the pain of a past they have been terrified to talk about through the years.

There was once a time, not long ago, when the Catholic Church believed that it was more important to protect its paedophile priests than to safeguard the innocent children these predators preyed on. For decades the church had lived by its own rules and laws, and its priests remained untouchable. Because of their seeming invincibility, these priests were joined in their systematic rape and abuse of young children by other 'pillars' of society, namely gardai, teachers, swimming instructors, scout leaders, and many other individuals parents naturally assumed their young children were safe in the care of. Within a group of influential people there is guaranteed safety in numbers.

Some of these children died as a result of their abuse, while others 'disappeared' because - in deciding that they couldn't take anymore of the pain - they wanted to tell someone that their young lives were slowly being destroyed. Sadly the reason they disappeared was because they disclosed their abuse to the wrong person. I believe this is what happened to Philip Cairns.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Ireland was awash with paedophile rings. Each group was autonomous and anonymous; but each group would have known of other neighbouring rings. Secrecy and protection were the key words to the survival of these groups and their members, no matter what that protection entailed. If you had to kill to survive, then there often was no other option.

Evidence shows now that the archdiocese of Dublin was home to some of the most vile and violent paedophile rings in the country. Rathfarnham was the home of one of the most secretive and dangerous rings of predators that ever existed. No one on the outside would have suspected anything of the sort because of its upmarket status back then. Its leafy, wealthy appearance gave the impression of stability and contentment. It was perfect for the crimes that were committed against children whose lives were threatened if they dared to speak out. Unfortunately Philip was unique in that he was prepared to speak out against his abusers.

In 1971, Archbishop John Charles McQuaid appointed a priest called Patrick Tuohy to Ringsend church in Dublin. Tuohy would remain there until 1973 when he was appointed parish priest of Rathfarnham. As soon as Fr Tuohy had settled into life in his new parish he started to abuse young boys. Tuohy was a close friend of McQuaid - another low-profile paedophile - who died in April 1973. Tuohy's appointment to Rathfarnham was made by McQuaid's successor, Dermot Ryan.

Tuohy set up a newspaper recycling project and encouraged the young boys from the local national schools to get involved. He suggested they collect old newspapers from their neighbourhoods and bring them to a large recycling collector he had installed close to the paraochial house. He was supported by a number of local businessmen in the project - one of these was a local newsagent who is now dead. A barber has also been mentioned. Also a primary school teacher, a swimming instructor, and at least one garda (possibly three). The garda, who is now retired but still alive, was actively supporting (and protecting) and willingly participating in what was going on behind the scenes, namely the abuse of many of the young boys who had become involved in the newspaper recycling project.

It didn't just stop at the recycling business. Tuohy, with the help of the other abusers, used every opportunity he could get to groom young boys. Philip's abuse would have started around 1982, when he was nine years old. This is usually the age that paedophiles target young children as it's known as the modelling age when children look for a role model who will influence them and encourage them. Children trust their role models implicitly.

However, by the time Philip had turned thirteen, the abuse was no longer sitting comfortably with him. He was in a new school. His newly-acquired teenage status was being hindered by the experiences he could no longer bury deep within. He was discovering what it meant to have a conscience; and a newly-formed conscience has no space for sexual abuse.

It's my belief that Philip told someone in confidence about the abuse he was suffering at the hands of Tuohy. It may have been an old teacher from his primary school days. It might have been the local garda, who unknown to Philip was up to his eyes in the abuse ring. Whoever he told then reported back to Tuohy, and from that moment the dye was set. Philip's fate was sealed.

Philip was returning to school that afternoon when he was stopped by someone he knew, someone who asked him to get into the car for a few moments. Whoever was driving, I believe, took him to Fr Tuohy's house where Philip was warned that if he ever talked about his abuse, he would disappear. I believe at that moment that Philip panicked and tried to run from the house. Whatever men were in Patrick Tuohy's parochial house that afternoon - It's my understanding that there were three men present - were the last to see Philip Cairn's alive. They were the same men who disposed of Philip's body.

Patrick Tuohy was relieved of his priestly duties within a fortnight of Philip Cairns disappearance by the then archbishop Kevin McNamara. Clearly damage limitation quickly became a priority. There was no public explanation given as to why Tuohy was being taken out of priestly circulation. He remained on in the parish in some sort of strange pastoral role until his death in 1994.

In order to understand why no one has ever been charged and convicted of paedophile offences against children in the Rathfarnham area it's important to look at the backdrop politically and religiously in those days. Herein lies the reasons that a gang of locally respected men who raped and abused local children got away with their disgusting crimes. The Rathfarnham paedophile gang was heavily protected religiously and politically from outside of their jurisdiction. It consisted of approximately seven individuals. One of them was a political activist who had higher support.

Following the retirement of John Charles McQuaid as archbishop of Dublin, the papal nuncio Gaetano Alibrandi, was left with a dilemma. McQuaid's successor was Dermot Ryan - a man many regarded as far more liberal and progressive than his medieval predecessor. Alibrandi, an arch-conservative and protector of the old world of Pope Paul VI, hated the new liberalism of the modern church. So it's not surprising that Alibrandi had a very tense relationship with taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald had even asked for Alibrandi to be removed because of his suspected closeness to the IRA and to Charles Haughey. Alibrandi had great sympathy for the provisional IRA.

Alibrandi had greater power than the bishops. He was happy for his paedophile priests to be protected at any cost. He knew that if his priests were looked after by sympathetic gardai and political activists in the area, then no one could touch them. No one would dare to go up against them and challenge them. The risks would be huge and the cost of being so stupid would be enormous.

Alibrandi wanted the archbishop who succeeded Ryan to be 'doctrinally sound' -someone who would put the needs of the church and its priests above everything else, including innocent defenceless children. He wanted an archbishop who was opposed to divorce and contraception and the the idea of any significant role for women in the church. He ignored the reports that were piling up on his desk that priests were abusing young children. He didn't care.

The appointment of Kevin McNamara as Ryan's successor was hopefully going to solve all of his problems. McNamara was one of those conservative old-guards of the traditional church - the same church that ignored child abuse and simply moved the abusers from one parish to another. McNamara's fate was also sealed however. Cancer killed him after only three years in office. But by then Philip Cairns had disappeared, never to be seen again.

A number of individuals - both men and women - have contacted me privately in recent days to say they went to Rathfarnham garda station many years ago to report savage abuse they suffered at the hands of the individuals in this paedophile ring. Their files and statements remain ignored all these years later - locked up in some filing cabinet somewhere in that building - their complaints never investigated. One woman told me only last week that as a young child she was taken into the Dublin mountains by three local men and repeatedly raped, and then dropped back close to where she lived.

Philip's disappearance has been used as the ultimate threat that still hangs over the lives of so many of those young people who were abused by this group of men back in the 70s and 80s. Each of those victims of abuse was told, "if you ever tell anyone what happened, you will end up like Philip Cairns". One victim told me this last week. Thirty years later he is still terrified that he will 'vanish' and never be found if he speaks out. Such a threat can last a lifetime for so many reasons.

I want to make a special appeal to those of you who read this piece today: These men - these paedophiles - are dying. They are old now. Back then, they were physically stronger and more influential than they are now. Their ominous threats stand for nothing today. A small child who is threatened can often still remain in part a small child thirty years later, terrified and frozen in time by the threat of death from someone you were afraid of - someone who is now a very old, frail and frightened man. The fear young boys felt thirty years ago is now the same fear that a group of men in their late sixties and seventies are feeling.

I was abused in the early 70s and warned that if I ever divulged anything about what happened to me that I would also be killed. I am still alive despite talking out for years about my abuse. I expect that my writing here today is making a small group of men feel very uncomfortable - the same men who hope that death might come to them before the world finally discovers who they are.

Time has a habit of catching up on these individuals. And that seems to be what's happening in these past few weeks. You might have taken Philip's life, but he hasn't gone away.

Kamili

I'm shocked by that I knew Fr. Touey well, as a child and would never ever have picked him out as a paedofile. I found him to be a very gentle and always helpful. His successor on the other hand drove a red car and was very arrogant, rude and aggressive. May have no connection.

Maybe I'm wrong about that though.

Jesus, Gareth O Callaghan spouts some crap!

He basically has solved the whole case, smashing open a massive hidden paedophile ring at the same time.

Like the Scooby Doo gang, or poirot!

twill

His story reads like an attempt at a crime drama - a certain verisimilitude but not much credibility. If he does have a genuine story fair play to him for bringing it out, but I'd wonder why he didn't try and get a journalist onto it first. I'm sure British papers would be very willing to follow up on the religious angle. One thing I do agree with is about the Eamonn Cooke angle. The first thing that struck me about the note story was that it was the day after Cooke's daughter said he wasn't in a position to confirm or deny anything when he was on his deathbed.

Fleawuss

There are serious allegations in that article. Picking just one, and regardless of its alleged connection to the Philip Cairns case, it is extraordinary that allegations made to the Gardai were not, allegedly, investigated. Every time this case is looked at something about claims made to the Gardai and not acted on falls out of the woodwork.

Don't Chute!

That reads like the ramblings of a complete madman.

Losty Dublin

twill wrote: »

His story reads like an attempt at a crime drama

Believe it or not but O'Callaghan has written three crime novels.

twill

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Believe it or not but O'Callaghan has written three crime novels.

Interesting, I thought I had a vague memory of that.

If he genuinely has information, he should collaborate with someone who can make better use of it. He's making it sound like the premise for a novel.

evolving_doors

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Believe it or not but O'Callaghan has written three crime novels.

Here's number 4!

Anyhow maybe the church has something to respond to? Doesn't mean Gareth is wrong too. He piecing something together anyway. Lots of anonymous tip off though.

Strumms

If there were members of the Gardai involved you can be sure it will always remain a cover up. The Gardai don't rat out their own retired dead or otherwise. Even if one of them has done wrong it doesn't matter they see an attack against one as an attack on all. It's an ingrained mindset.

Kamili

Well I call bull on this one..

However I do believe that the individual directly involved in the ultimate reason for Philip's abduction on the afternoon of the 23rd October 1986 is long dead. I believe he was a local priest who was well known as someone who preyed on young boys. Ironically there is no longer any trace of him in the records of the Dublin dioceses (or anywhere on search engines on the internet). even rang their archive section looking to find out more about him. They promised to email me back information within 24 hours. Almost two weeks later I'm still waiting. I'm not very surprised.

Funny how the priest he names in his second post is listed as Parish priest which was found by an online search, and returned by the first hit.



http://www.annunciationrathfarnham.com/our_parish.html

1973 Patrick Tuohy to Pastor Emeritus 1986 died 15 April 1994