Social media Cairns crusade shocks family

THE sister of missing Ballyroan schoolboy Philip Cairns has said a recent social media campaign about his disappearance has been shocking and deeply distressing to her family.

Sandra Cairns was speaking at an event in Farmleigh to mark Missing Persons Day.

She said it has been 30 years since her brother went missing while returning to school in Rathfarnham.

Ms Cairns said that over the years her family has received great support from the local community and they have been moved by the kindness, empathy and generosity of people.

She said there has been much speculation about what happened to her brother over the years, but a recent social media campaign “has been shocking and deeply distressing”.

Philip (13) disappeared on the afternoon of October 23, 1986 while walking back to his school, Coláiste Eanna, where he had been a first-year student for nearly two months.

A large-scale investigation was carried out but no trace of the boy was ever found. Mysteriously, his schoolbag was subsequently discovered lying in a laneway linking Anne Devlin Road and Anne Devlin Drive, which had previously been searched.

Though the weather had been wet at the time the bag was found, the bag was dry, as if it had been left there for somebody to find.

The bag contained some of Philip’s books, but his geography book and two religion books (Christian Way 1 and the Good News New Testament) were missing.

Forensic tests on the bag did not reveal any information.