Eamonn Cooke

Eamonn Cooke (c.1936 – June 2016) was a former owner of pirate radio station Radio Dublin. He was a convicted paedophile, and a suspect in the disappearance of Philip Cairns. He assumed ownership of the station in 1977.

Pirate radio As owner of Radio Dublin he went by the name "Captain Cooke". Having first got involved with Radio Dublin in 1973 as an engineer, he assumed ownership of the station in 1977 (which had been operating for over a decade prior under various other owners) and established the operation as a limited company (based in Cardiff). He continued to operate the station until some months before its closure in 2003. Despite numerous (but highly intermittent) raids by the authorities on the station in which large amounts of equipment were seized he was only successfully prosecuted for broadcasting offences on one occasion for which he received an IR£35 fine.

Trials

1952 An unnamed teenager (probably Cooke) was sentenced to 12 months probation after a bomb attack on a Monument in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

1957 Cooke is sentenced to 5 years penal servitude after he pleaded guilty to shooting at four gardaí during an attempted robbery at a petrol station near Bray.

1986 Cooke (along with four accomplices) is convicted of assault and arson in relation to a 1984 firebombing incident and received a four-year suspended sentence

2003 His first trial in relation to sex offences was in 2003, where he was convicted of the attempted rape and indecent assault of four girls.

Alleged connection to Philip Cairns disappearance In May 2016 a woman contacted Gardaí about the disappearance of Philip Cairns which they believed to be credible. According to her Cooke may have killed Philip Cairns at the studios of his pirate radio station in October 1986.

In August 2016 it was announced that DNA samples taken from Philips' schoolbag did not match Cooke, but he had not been ruled out as a suspect. Gardaí also sought to identify two people who may have left Philips' schoolbag in the laneway. He was granted temporary release from Arbour Hill Prison and had stayed in a hospice due to deteriorating health.