Council Of Ireland Research Articles

A Cross-Sectional Study of the Current and Future Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy Student Workforce in the UK and Ireland During 2022-2025: Considering Facilitators and Barriers to the Growth of This Workforce.

With evidence suggesting that dental hygienists (DH) and dental therapists (DThs) can undertake a significant proportion of routine clinical work, this paper explores the number of recent graduates and students currently in training in the UK and Ireland and considers whether there are sufficient DH and DTh registrants to positively impact on population needs. An online questionnaire survey was distributed by the Directors of Dental Hygiene and Therapy Group to all programme leads of dental hygiene and dental therapy programmes during December 2023. There was a 100% response rate. The majority of programmes award a Bachelor's degree, with a minority offering a Diploma or Foundation degree; one programme awards an MSc level qualification. The number of graduates in the 2022-2023 academic year was 429, registered with both the General Dental Council (GDC) and Dental Council of Ireland (DCI). The numbers of DH students expected to graduate in 2023-2024 academic year is likely to increase by 44% and in 2024-2025 this will increase by a further 12% compared to the previous year. The anticipated numbers of DTh graduates registering across the UK in 2023-2024 academic year is 312, representing in a slight decrease of 3% from the previous year; in 2024-2025 this figure is expected to remain static at 313. The results of this study demonstrate the numbers of students recently graduated and in training in the UK and Ireland, during 2022-2025. The numbers of registrants is slightly increasing, but there is a need for detailed information regarding working practices to inform future workforce planning; this will inform the need for increasing training numbers.

The Fairy Council of Ireland at the River Boyne

The Fairy Council of Ireland at the River Boyne

Teacher professionalism in policy texts in the Republic of Ireland; a critical discourse analysis

ABSTRACT In the Republic of Ireland, primary school teaching is a very attractive profession with pay being above the OECD average (Heinz and Keane 2018; Hennessey and Lynch 2017). This paper investigates how the Department of Education Inspectorate and the Teaching Council of Ireland position primary school teacher professionalism. The paper presents the findings of critical discourse analysis (CDA) of two policy texts; Looking at our schools 2016 (2016) by the Department of Education Inspectorate and Cosán framework for teachers learning (2016) by the Teaching Council of Ireland. This paper is timely because the Inspectorate and the Teaching Council of Ireland, recently published the Cosán Action Plan (2021) and Looking at our Schools 2022 (2022), both of which describe how the Department intends to integrate Cosán more deeply into Irish education as a complementary policy to Looking at our Schools (2022). At this policy juncture, this research finds that the two organisations’ understandings of teacher professionalism overlap in places but also sit in tension with each other.

Ireland’s Response to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence: An Interview with Orla O’Connor

Orla O’Connor is the Director of the “National Women’s Council of Ireland” (NWCI), the leading national women’s membership organisation with over 190-member groups. She has held senior management roles in several non-governmental organisations for over 25 years. Time magazine recognised her as one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2019 for her role as Co-director of “Together for Yes”, the successful national civil society campaign that was influential in Ireland voting overwhelmingly in favour of removing the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution, a landmark referendum, which led to the legalisation of abortion in 2018. In addition to campaigning for women’s reproductive rights, Orla has spearheaded several other prominent campaigns related to women’s rights, including pension reform, social welfare reform, and the introduction of quality and affordable childcare. To mark the annual international campaign of the “16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence” – which started on 25 November with the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women”, and ended on 10 December, “Human Rights Day” – Orla was interviewed on 8 November 2022. O’Connor discusses recent Irish legislation and policy developments in relation to Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence (DSGBV), in particular, the government’s ambitious “Third National Strategy” on the issue – the “Zero Tolerance Plan” – published in 2022. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

H15 A treatment for leprosy developed on the edge of Europe: Vincent Barry (1908–1975)

Abstract Leprosy is the prototype of a biblical disease. Without an effective cure, it was deemed a ‘curse’ for millennia. It is an infection caused by Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. With an affinity for peripheral skin (due to lower temperatures), a rash is a common presenting feature. A tropism to infiltrate neural tissue causes a reduction in sensation leading to repeated injury, infection and disfigurement. Affected individuals were often shunned from society and sent to leper colonies. Treatment for leprosy only became effective in the mid-20th century. Initial treatment for leprosy was with promin and dapsone. Clofazimine and rifampicin were later added in the 1960s–70s. Treatment for leprosy consists of a multidrug therapy regime of rifampicin, dapsone and clofazimine for 6–12 months. This was first recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1981 and remains the recommended treatment. Clofazimine was developed in a laboratory in Trinity College Dublin by Vincent Barry and his scientific team. Vincent Barry was born in Cork, Ireland, and later graduated in chemistry from University College Dublin. He became associate professor of chemistry in Galway where he lectured bilingually in Irish and English and co-authored the first Irish-language textbook for chemistry (Ceimic). Barry spent time working in and observing leper colonies in both Zimbabwe and India. In 1943, he was given a fellowship by the Medical Research Council of Ireland to carry out research on the chemotherapy of tuberculosis (TB). However, as TB became more curable, he focused his attention on leprosy. His team were given laboratory space in Trinity College Dublin, and in 1957, they developed compound B663, clofazimine. Intended as an anti-TB medication, clofazimine showed more effectiveness against leprosy. The product was launched in 1969 after several clinical trials in Nigeria. In 1974, they devoted the patents of the drug to India to allow it to be produced in a more cost-effective manner. The team was not interested in fame or fortune; their goal was simply to make the drug available in the developing world. They received the Boyle Award from the Royal Dublin Society in 1969, and the UNESCO Science prize in 1980 ‘for their work on the synthesis of an anti-leprosy agent, B-633’. The achievements of Mr Barry and his team, seldom discussed, have led to millions of lives being saved. Clofazimine is part of the WHO Model list of Essential Medicines.

Partnership or prescription: a critical discourse analysis of HEI-school partnership policy in the Republic of Ireland

ABSTRACT The Republic of Ireland has witnessed a transformative reform agenda in teacher education, stemming from internal trends, increased emphasis on supranational ranking indicators, and recommendations from national and international reviews of existing teacher education. As part of this reform agenda, the Teaching Council of Ireland has espoused models of higher education institution (HEI)-school partnerships, crystallised in Céim: Standards for Initial Teacher Education (Teaching Council, 2020) and Guidelines on School Placement (Teaching Council, 2021). Using critical discourse analysis, we unpack how language is directed to two key partners within the policies, namely higher education institutions and schools. Findings unpack a range of agendas at play that are undermining the notion of partnership, including how language can displace the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders. We conclude with a call for further critical policy research in teacher education, given the wider policy and political influences at play. This paper offers a theoretical-oriented framework that can support a critical reading of such policies.

International Briefs

International Briefs

International Briefs

International Briefs

The Process of Re-developing a National Training Curriculum for Radiation Oncology: The Irish Experience

Purpose There have been significant advancements in the specialty of radiation oncology (RO) in recent years. This has been reflected in the modernisation of RO infrastructure in Ireland. Two large satellite units connected to our largest training centre in Dublin opened in 2011. The other two national training sites in Cork and Galway have also been expanded which has introduced the capability to treat with advanced techniques. RO trainee numbers have also significantly increased over this time, in parallel with these developments. Methods An RO curriculum development subcommittee of the Irish Faculty of Radiologists was established. This included faculty representatives, the national training coordinator, the local training coordinators for each of the three sites, and 2 trainee representatives. The subcommittee reviewed the current curriculum and identified areas for modernisation using Grant's 6 steps method for guidance. These steps include needs assessment, curriculum purpose, learning outcomes, curriculum organisation, educational experience and curriculum evaluation. Multiple sources were referenced to aid content generation. For example, the Medical Council of Ireland's 8 domains of Good Clinical Practice were followed to ensure that the goals of the training scheme were in keeping with the highest professional standards. Training curricula from North America, ESTRO, Australia and the UK were used as references to guide the clinical aspects of training. The subcommittee divided work and met regularly to review progress over a 12-month period. More broad surveys of stakeholders including trainees and trainers were undertaken for some aspects. Results The new curriculum was agreed by the members of the subcommittee and approved by the Faculty. Due to the nature of post graduate RO training, the curriculum design is overlapping between the modular and the spiral design Several new documents are now in place including introductory guidelines to help new trainees through the training scheme. Non-clinical aspects related to management and communication skills have been introduced. Formal processes for evaluating clinical skills related to radiotherapy planning, and a reference to modern treatment techniques including SABR and SRS, have also been incorporated. Discussion We have created a new national training scheme, based on the 6 steps method, which reflects modern RO practice in Ireland. This should facilitate the training of ROs with excellent professional and clinical skills and allow for international recognition of the training programme. There have been significant advancements in the specialty of radiation oncology (RO) in recent years. This has been reflected in the modernisation of RO infrastructure in Ireland. Two large satellite units connected to our largest training centre in Dublin opened in 2011. The other two national training sites in Cork and Galway have also been expanded which has introduced the capability to treat with advanced techniques. RO trainee numbers have also significantly increased over this time, in parallel with these developments. An RO curriculum development subcommittee of the Irish Faculty of Radiologists was established. This included faculty representatives, the national training coordinator, the local training coordinators for each of the three sites, and 2 trainee representatives. The subcommittee reviewed the current curriculum and identified areas for modernisation using Grant's 6 steps method for guidance. These steps include needs assessment, curriculum purpose, learning outcomes, curriculum organisation, educational experience and curriculum evaluation. Multiple sources were referenced to aid content generation. For example, the Medical Council of Ireland's 8 domains of Good Clinical Practice were followed to ensure that the goals of the training scheme were in keeping with the highest professional standards. Training curricula from North America, ESTRO, Australia and the UK were used as references to guide the clinical aspects of training. The subcommittee divided work and met regularly to review progress over a 12-month period. More broad surveys of stakeholders including trainees and trainers were undertaken for some aspects. The new curriculum was agreed by the members of the subcommittee and approved by the Faculty. Due to the nature of post graduate RO training, the curriculum design is overlapping between the modular and the spiral design Several new documents are now in place including introductory guidelines to help new trainees through the training scheme. Non-clinical aspects related to management and communication skills have been introduced. Formal processes for evaluating clinical skills related to radiotherapy planning, and a reference to modern treatment techniques including SABR and SRS, have also been incorporated. We have created a new national training scheme, based on the 6 steps method, which reflects modern RO practice in Ireland. This should facilitate the training of ROs with excellent professional and clinical skills and allow for international recognition of the training programme.

The risk to Occupational Health Physicians of complaint to The Medical Council of Ireland; and the use of digital audio recording of consultations as a risk management tool

The risk to Occupational Health Physicians of complaint to The Medical Council of Ireland; and the use of digital audio recording of consultations as a risk management tool

The Magic of Teaching and Learning: An Exclusive With Tomás Ó Ruairc, From the Teaching Council of Ireland

CE International recently had the opportunity to connect with Tomás Ó Ruairc, the CEO of the Teaching Council of Ireland. His work at the Teaching Council represents a remarkable intersection of community, creativity, and professional standards that is capturing the attention of the OECD and European Union. Here, we share highlights from a conversation between Tomás and Diane Whitehead, CEO at CE International.

Cover | Clúdach

Cover | Clúdach Angela Griffith (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Cover. Mandy O’Neill, Diane, 2018 PHOTOGRAPH Used with the artist’s permission she looks directly to you. Set against a sky-blue background, Diane is centrally and dominantly placed in the composition. Her beauty is mesmeric; her features flawlessly balanced and proportioned in a perfectly oval face, evocative of classical statues. Like her Greek goddess namesake, her poise is assured and controlled. However, unlike many visual representations of the female across time, she does not passively receive our attention, nor is she confrontational. We are looking at a self-possessed individual. Diane is aware of our gaze, and knowingly returns it. She owns her appearance; her distinctive hairstyle, makeup, and jewelry defy the usual conformities associated with a school uniform. And with that, we realize that we are looking at a young adult, which makes her composure all the more striking. We are witnessing a person’s transition from adolescence to adulthood. The artist who produced this image of Diane is Mandy O’Neill. O’Neill grew up in South Dublin, and she continues to work in the capital. She began training and working as an artist relatively later in life, studying photography at third level in her thirties. She is currently a practice-based doctoral candidate with Dublin City University. O’Neill has always worked in photography. Her early images focused on Dublin’s subcultures, and she continues to engage with those who may be perceived as being on the margins of society, her work countering extant middle-class art experiences. Much of her oeuvre stems from a number of art residencies in schools or [End Page 174] with youth centers, some of which have been state-funded through the Arts Council of Ireland, but many of which were self-initiated. Working best in the context of a longer-term project, O’Neill embeds herself in the environment she observes; it becomes her work space. She enters the school community with no perceived plan; themes are allowed to evolve, to suggest themselves to the artist. While initially members of the community may be suspicious of or self-conscious in her presence, it is important that the artist becomes familiar to students and staff, almost to the point of them no longer seeing her separateness as she wanders from classroom to classroom, from activity to activity. O’Neill’s aim is to ultimately become part of the everyday life of the school, which allows her to explore meaning and relevance within that everydayness. However, the artist does not see her role as that of a removed observer. She has conducted workshops with young adults from differing backgrounds on issues including self-image and the importance of social media and its impacts on their lives. It is essential for O’Neill that she does not enter the engagement process with preconceived ideas or objectives. She gets to know the students on their own terms, and coming from a similar social background she—unsentimentally— shares her own life journey to becoming an artist, a role unfamiliar to many of those she works with. It is important to O’Neill that each young person recognizes and takes ownership of their agency throughout the process. Her most recent work is concerned with cultural diversity among Irish teenagers. Working with a group of female post-primary students, she records their social lives and their neighborhoods, and these photographic explorations are shared and discussed within the wider set, bringing together factions that would remain apart in the school environment. Collaboration with O’Neill provides a safe space for her young subjects to question their lives and the lives of others, to build understanding and tolerance. As the process evolves differences dissipate and are replaced with a sense of kinship and solidarity. How each of her young subjects responds to the camera, as with any group in society, differs greatly; some work with it, as in Diane, others will not. As part of the selfie generation, many teenagers are camera savvy. It is a familiar format: many “know their angles” and strike a pose. At times, O’Neill’s sitters can be disappointed...

John Hume's Legacy

John Hume’s Legacy Michael Lillis It would be difficult to argue against the proposition that John Hume has been the most important and influential political leader in Ireland over the past forty years. He has had more influence than anyone else on every taoiseach from Jack Lynch to Bertie Ahern and on every leader of the opposition in the Dáil. He has devised an entire political vocabulary and a multi-layered vision for Northern Ireland that have been adopted in every serious attempt at a settlement, not alone by the SDLP but by every other protagonist from the successive Irish and British governments to unionists of all brands, even to loyalists and Sinn Féin, and of course across the debate in the South. His has become the language for dealing with Northern Ireland throughout the political spectrum in the US, in the EU and in journalism and academic discourse. His extraordinary creativity and moral force have been endlessly acknowledged, for example through the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him and David Trimble, the Gandhi Prize and (his personal favourite) the Martin Luther King Prize. In 2010 he was elected ‘Ireland’s Greatest’in an RTÉ poll of its viewers seeking to identify the greatest Irish person in history. In his final years, John Hume was occluded by illness from politics, the price he and his wife Pat paid for their personal sacrifices for peace and for John’s literally unwearying political and intellectual toil under the unrelenting pressure of the horrors and setbacks of a generation at the very heart of the crisis of Northern Ireland of thirty years. A sense of the scale of his achievements may be captured by a simple recital of some of the political transformations of which he was the principal inspiration and driving force. Among these are the reinvention and repositioning of nationalist politics in the late 1960s, from the jaded antipartitionist slogans of the traditional Nationalist Party of Northern Ireland to the total engagement with the civil rights campaign and an unyielding policy of non-violence, of power-sharing with unionism and the Irish dimension which began with a few articles he wrote in the The Irish Times in 1964. While he endlessly created new tactics and scenarios for progress, he never departed from that analysis or from those principles. Studies • volume 109 • number 436 371 There was also his trenchant confrontation of the British and Stormont governments’ Pavlovian policies of oppression, internment without trial and the abuse of hundreds of innocent men at the beginning of the 1970s, and the cold-blooded massacre of Bloody Sunday. The IRA’s incipient campaign of violence was galvanised by these disastrous security projects and it continued to destroy the hopes of many hundreds of thousands of people for an ordinary life for themselves and for their children throughout the following cycles. The crisis of 1972 forced the suspension of Stormont and facilitated the direct inspiration by Hume of all that was positive in the new thinking behind secretary of state William Whitelaw’s White Paper of March 1973, itself for the most part an anthology of what later became known as Humespeak: power-sharing within Northern Ireland, North-South partnership,Anglo-Irish partnership, a Bill of Rights. The White Paper led in turn to the creation of the short-lived power-sharing Sunningdale government, of which Hume was the most dynamic member, and to the eventually aborted negotiation of the North-South Council of Ireland. Despite the reverses, this was nevertheless a moment of almost dizzy hope, as eloquently recalled by Ian Doherty in his recent review of Noel Dorr’s excellent book Sunningdale: The Search for Peace in Northern Ireland.1 The reviewer equally recalled the disaster of a few months later: ‘I was twenty-one years old at the time and can still remember the feeling of devastation and despair’. Inexcusably, all the hope of that time was betrayed by the surrender by the British government of Harold Wilson and Merlyn Rees in endorsing the British army’s cowardly refusal to confront the loyalist workers’ strike of May 1974 and, equally, by the ‘slow learners’, as Seamus Mallon called them...

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

Hospital doctors and the struggle for work-life balance: the case of Ireland

Abstract Background Ireland has a high rate of doctor emigration. Difficult working conditions, particularly in the hospital sector, are often cited as a driver of doctor emigration. In October 2019, a random sample of Ireland's hospital doctors were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey about their working conditions. Methods The survey was distributed via the national Medical Register (with the assistance of the Medical Council of Ireland). Invitations were sent to 5356 hospital doctors, stratified by registration status (including interns, trainees, those not in training and consultants). An overall response rate of 20% was achieved (N = 1070). This paper focusses on responses to two free-text survey questions: (1) Do you have any other comments about your work-life balance? (N = 314). (2) Do you have any other comments on your working conditions as a hospital doctor? (N = 469). Results Respondent hospital doctors, at all levels of seniority, were struggling to achieve a balance between work and life. Of the free-text responses received, 8/10 were negative, with work-life balance/imbalance and work-overload being the issues arising most frequently. Respondents discussed how long and unpredictable working hours, combined with a high level of work intensity, meant that they often spent their personal time recovering from work. Conclusions Poor work-life balance has become normalised within Irish hospital medicine. The findings call to action to critically reflect on the sustainability of this way of working for the individual doctors, the wider workforce and the Irish health system.

Moving beyond the technical skills and promoting professionalism-the experience of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland with incorporating the Medical Council Eight Domains of Good Professional Practice into Entrustable Professional Activities.

The goal of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland (CAI) is to train qualified anaesthesiologists who embody all aspects of professionalism. The Medical Council of Ireland has identified Eight Domains of Good Professional Practice which guide the standards for postgraduate specialist training, including within the CAI. Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) were adopted as the organising framework for a competency-based programme within CAI. The aims were (i) to ensure that the EPA-integrated competencies from across the full range of domains and (ii) to design workplace-based assessment which fosters a culture and practice of feedback above and beyond technical skills. Four core EPAs were developed for trialling; competencies were tagged to the eight domains in an iterative development process. Feedback Reports were devised as tools for workplace-based assessment. Analysis of the Feedback Report data revealed how well the content reflected the full range of domains. 'Clinical Skills' is the domain to which most competencies within the EPAs were tagged. Analysis of the content of Feedback Reports also revealed an overrepresentation of that domain. This highlighted the apparent preference of consultants and trainees for selecting clinical aspects of an EPA to provide and receive feedback on, rather than professionalism or any of the other non-technical domains. We advocate and make recommendations for more effective incorporation of the non-technical domains of professional practice in the processes of curriculum development, teaching, learning, feedback and assessment.

“I Do Like Stretching Reality”: An Interview with Alan McMonagle

Abstract: Galway writer Alan McMonagle participated in the Conference “II St. Patrick’s Day International Seminar: Irish Itinerary 2019 (EFACIS) and Women in Irish Culture” at the Centre of Irish Studies Banna / Bond, University of La Rioja (EFACIS Centre – European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies). The following interview took place there on 12 March 2019, covering issues of creative writing, formal innovation, poetry, short story, radio drama, film noir, comic fiction, dark laughter, gender, Beckett, Greek and Russian literature, and social inclusion and exclusion in Irish culture. McMonagle offers a number of insightful responses and shares his views on writing, relationships and his motivations to write. McMonagle has contributed stories to many journals in Ireland and North America over more than a decade and is the author of two collections, Liar, Liar (2008) and Psychotic Episodes (2013), both nominated for the Frank O’Connor Short Story Award. He has received awards for his work from the Professional Artists’ Retreat in Yaddo (New York), the Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada) and the Arts Council of Ireland. Early in 2014, his radio play Oscar Night was produced and broadcast as part of RTE’s “Drama on One” season. Three years later, in 2017, McMonagle produced and broadcast another play, People Walking on Water. He is a contributor to the anthology Young Irelanders (edited by Dave Lordan, 2015). In November 2015, he signed a two-book deal with Picador and his first novel, Ithaca, was published in March 2017. He was immediately nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize for first novels. At the moment, he is writing his second novel for Picador.

A survey of the provision of orthodontics in Ireland 2018

Workforce planning is important in all aspects of healthcare; in orthodontics, this must take into account several issues including the need for orthodontic treatment, the number of specialist personnel available to provide treatment and the role of orthodontic auxiliaries. The aim of this study was to collect information on the orthodontic workforce in Ireland and to compare this information with previous studies (2001, 2007) in order to determine longitudinal trends in the orthodontic workforce in Ireland. The study was carried out in the form of a survey. The survey included orthodontic specialists practising in the Republic of Ireland. A list of these practitioners was obtained via the Orthodontic Society of Ireland (OSI) and the orthodontic specialist register of the Dental Council of Ireland. The study was circulated both via email and post for completion by March 31, 2018. The electronic version used SurveyMonkey software, which provides a user-friendly interface between the operator and the target population. Data was then collated using both hard copy and online survey responses. The survey showed that the number of orthodontists in Ireland has increased since 2007, with the practitioner ratio to the number of 12-year-olds remaining stable. It also highlights the increasing role for orthodontic auxiliaries, which may affect future workforce levels. Workforce planning must consider current specialist practitioner numbers, population growth and the increasing role of auxiliaries in orthodontic practice, along with the older age profile of practising orthodontists.

Central Places in a Rural Archaeological Landscape

Thanks are due to a number of funding bodies and archaeological professionals—the Heritage Council of Ireland funded the initial phases of survey, and the Royal Irish Academy the excavation of the sub-square cashel. Excavation at Caherconnell Cashel is made possible by the Caherconnell Archaeological Field School and the Davoren family who own the land (with early excavations undertaken in conjunction with Graham Hull and TVAS Ireland). An anonymous donation to the Department of Archaeology at NUI, Galway has allowed the final completion of the survey and the creation of some of the maps included here. Survey work was undertaken in conjunction with Liam Hickey, Nick Hogan, Cormac Bruton, Paul Naessens, and Noel McCarthy. Thanks also to manuscript editor Carleton Jones and two referees for their part in improving this paper.

A Promising Mandibular Molar Trait in Ancient Populations of Ireland

A novel morphologic feature on the human dental enamel of the permanent mandibular molars is described. The character, named MMPT (mandibular molar pit-tubercle), is situated mesial and occlusal to the position often occupied by the protostylid on the buccal aspect of cusp 1. Three grades of variation, a pit, a groove, and a tubercle were observed, described and categorized for study. The study groups consisted mainly of archaeological specimens from Ireland, representing approximately 5,000 years of prehistoric and early historic populations on the island, dating from the Neolithic (ca. 4,000-1,800 B.C.) through the Early Christian era (ca. A.D. 400-1170). All lower molars (representing 432 individuals) were studied, ranging from 129 to 179 scorable molars depending on tooth type.*Correspondence to: Jaimin D. Weets, Department of Anthropology, 129A MacVicar Hall, 44 Pierrepont Avenue, SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY 13676E-mail: weetsjd@potsdam.eduGrant sponsorship: This research was made possible by Grant AY2001/10 from The Heritage Council of Ireland, grants from Research and Graduate Studies Office of The Pennsylvania State University, Research and Sponsored Programs SUNY Potsdam, United University Professions SUNY Potsdam and two Hill Grants from The Pennsylvania State University.The third molar more commonly expressed all forms of MMPT than the first or second molars, with approximately 30% of all third molars exhibiting a form of MMPT (28% of lower left third molars and 33% of lower right third molars). The most commonly expressed form of MMPT was Grade 1, the pit form, most commonly on third molars. Individual Viking specimens from Ireland also exhibited MMPT, and the trait appears to be present in East Asian modern humans at a markedly lower rate of expression, and in Homo pekinensis. Further research will clarify any relationships between MMPT, paramolar tubercles, paramolar structures and the protostylid, as well as the utility of MMPT in dental anthropological biodistancing studies.