Human Remains Services Ireland - HRSI started collaborative projects with the Office of the State Pathologist (OSP) and Forensic Science Ireland (FSI).

We are working on: 

  1. Forensic Anthropology Procedural Guidelines for Cases of Skeletal Remains/Bones, Dismemberment, Exhumations, Fire Deaths, Mummified Remains and Decomposition (in collaboration with the Office of the State Pathologist)
  2. Review of bone sample submission procedures for DNA analysis (in collaboration with Forensic Science Ireland)
  3. Targeted DNA sampling procedures of human remains for forensic human identification (in collaboration with the Office of the State Pathologist and Forensic Science Ireland)

The finalised documents and procedures will be released subject to approval from the relevant stakeholders and research ethics committees where relevant.

Past Projects

  • The St Ursuline skull relic - Galway City Museum (January 2018 - ).
  • The purported skull of Turlough O'Carolan, last of the great Irish Bards - National Museum of Ireland. (January 2018 - ).
  • Craniometric Training and the use of a statistical Craniometry programme (CRANID). Collaborator: Professor Emeritus Richard Wright, Inventor of CRANID, University of Sydney, Australia. December 2012 – 2016.
  • The Earls of Barrymore DNA Project. Human remains DNA research for family name project.
  • The skull casts and death masks of Jonathan Swift and Esther 'Stella' Johnson - A Forensic Investigation (2016-2017).
  • A forensic anthropological evaluation of skulls from a 19th century excavation of St John the Baptist's Hospital, Dublin Collaborators: Professor Joseph Harbison (TCD), Mrs Siobhán Ward (TCD). (June 2014 – December 2017). 
  • Research of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains held at the Anatomy Collection in Lund, Sweden. February – April 2015. Client: Australian Government. Indigenous Repatriation. Ministry for the Arts. Attorney-General’s Department.
  • Research of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains held at the Anatomy Collection in Halle, Germany. March – April 2014. Client: Australian Government. Indigenous Repatriation. Ministry for the Arts. Attorney-General’s Department.
  • Research of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestral remains held at the Charité Medical University, Berlin and the State Museum of Hanover in Germany. February – March 2013. Client: Australian Government. Dept. of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport. Indigenous Repatriation and Language Policy. Office for the Arts.
  • Evaluation of foramen magnum sexual dimorphism in a modern documented German population using post‐mortem computed tomography (PMCT). 2013. MSc Project. Role: Co-supervisor. Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Charité Medical University, Berlin, Germany.
  • PhD. Doctoral research project: Morphometric Analysis of the Foramen Magnum Region: Sexual Dimorphism in a British 18th and 19th Century Documented Skeletal Collection. November 2002 – December 2009. My doctoral research centred on the analysis of sexual dimorphism in the foramen magnum region of adult human skulls. This involved morphometric data collection on skulls of known age and sex, the statistical analysis of male and female measurements, and the development of population-specific discriminant functions for identification purposes.

International peer-reviewed journals (Principal author)

  • Gapert R (2018) Surprising origin of two carved bones donated to the Buchenwald Memorial Museum. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 14 (3):416-418.
  • Gapert R, Black S, Last J (2013) Test of age-related variation in the craniometry of the adult human foramen magnum region: implications for sex determination methods. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (4):478-488.
  • Gapert R, Tsokos M (2013) Anthropological analysis of extensive rodent gnaw marks on a human skull using post-mortem multislice computed tomography (pmMSCT). Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (3):441-445.
  • Gapert R, Rieder K (2013) Non-invasive examination of a skull fragment recovered from a World War Two aircraft crash site. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (3):395-402.
  • Gapert R, Widulin N, Tsokos M (2013) Occult hemispherectomy: an unusual finding at autopsy. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (1):122-124.
  • Gapert R, Black S, Last J (2009) Sex determination from the occipital condyle: discriminant function analysis in an eighteenth and nineteenth century British sample. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 138 (4):384-394.
  • Gapert R, Black S, Last J (2009) Sex determination from the foramen magnum: discriminant function analysis in an eighteenth and nineteenth century British sample. International Journal of Legal Medicine, 123 (1):25-33.


International peer-reviewed journals (Corresponding author)

  • Eckes L, Tsokos M, Herre S, Gapert R, Hartwig S (2014) Post-mortem evidence of doxylamine in toxicological analyses. Science & Justice, 54 (1):61-65.
  • Widulin N, Gapert R, Tsokos M (2014) Electrically-induced heat amputation of the hand in a case of fatal electric shock caused by a faulty table lamp. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 10 (1):136-138.
  • Sautter J, Gapert R, Tsokos M, Oesterhelweg L (2014) Murder-suicide by carbon dioxide (CO2) poisoning: a family case from Berlin, Germany. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 10 (1):97-102.
  • McNulty JP, Gapert R (2013) Forensic anthropology and radiography in the examination of an unknown mummified hand. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (4):602-606.
  • Hastedt M, Büchner M, Rothe M, Gapert R, Herre S, Krumbiegel F, Tsokos M, Kienast T, Heinz A, Hartwig S (2013) Detecting alcohol abuse: traditional blood alcohol markers compared to ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) measurement in hair. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (4):471-477.
  • Hastedt M, Krumbiegel F, Gapert R, Tsokos M, Hartwig S (2013) Fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) as markers for alcohol in meconium: method validation and implementation of a screening program for prenatal drug exposure. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (3):287-295.
  • Widulin N, Gapert R, Tsokos M (2013) Sponge-like appearance of the liver parenchyma due to fatal intrauterine gas gangrene following mechanical abortion. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (2):274-276.
  • Hayashi T, Gapert R, Tsokos M, Hartwig S (2013) Suicide with two shots to the head using a rare 'Velo-Dog' pocket revolver. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (2):265-269.
  • Eckes L, Tsokos M, Herre S, Gapert R, Hartwig S (2013) Toxicological identification of diphenhydramine in suicide. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (2):145-153.
  • Guddat SS, Gapert R, Tsokos M, Oesterhelweg L (2013) Proof of live birth using postmortem multislice computed tomography (pmMSCT) in cases of suspected neonaticide: advantages of diagnostic imaging compared to conventional autopsy. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (1):3-12.


International peer-reviewed journals (Co-author)

  • Krumbiegel F, Hastedt M, Eichberg S, Correns N, Gapert R, Hartwig S, Herre S, Tsokos M (2014) Hair analysis in the detection of long-term use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and its relation to gastrointestinal hemorrhage: an examination of 268 hair and blood samples from autopsy cases. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 10 (1):18-28.
  • Pawellek D, Tsokos M, Gapert R, Pawellek S, Hartwig S (2013) Tödliche Stürze von Kindern und Jugendlichen aus großer Höhe im Zeitraum 1997-2012. Retrospektive Fallstudie aus Berlin. [Fatal falls of children and adolescents from a height in the period 1997-2012. Retrospective case study from Berlin]. Rechtsmedizin, 23 (5):391-396.


Book chapters

  • Kealy G, Gapert R, Buckley L, Cassidy M, McNulty J, Wright R, Foyle R, Meier-Augenstein W, Kemp H, Wilkinson C, Rynn C, Clifford S (2014) Multi-Disciplinary Approach toward the Identification of a Human Skull Found 55 km off the Southeast coast of Ireland. In: Mallett X, Blythe T, Berry R (editors) Advances in Forensic Human Identification. CRC Press Taylor Francis Group: Boca Raton, London, New York, pp 193-210.


PhD Thesis

  • Morphometric Analysis of the Foramen Magnum Region: Sexual Dimorphism in a British 18th and 19th Century Documented Skeletal Collection. 2009. René Gapert. PhD Thesis. University College Dublin.


Other Publications

  • Gapert R (2018)  Book Review: ‘Utilizing Forensic Technologies for Unidentified Human Remains’ by George W. Adams. 2016. CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-4822-6347-3. Interfaces, 95:17.
  • Gapert R (2018)  Book Review: ‘Forensic Anthropology – A Comprehensive Introduction’ edited by Natalie R. Langley and MariaTeresa A. Tersigni-Tarrant. 2017. CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-4987-3612-1. Interfaces, 95:14-15.
  • Gapert R (2017)  Book Review: Disturbing Bodies - Perspectives on Forensic Anthropology, Zoë Crossland and Rosemary A. Joyce (eds.), SAR Press, ISBN 978-1-938645-55-6. Interfaces, 89 (1):16-18.
  • Gapert R, Rieder K (2013) Potential DVI issues pertaining to Luftwaffe interception units toward the end of WWII. [Letter to the editor]. Forensic Science, Medicine, and Pathology, 9 (3):465.
  • Gapert R (2012) Book Review: Human and Nonhuman Bone Identification: A Concise Field Guide, Diane L. France, CRC Press, ISBN 978-1-4398-2039-1. Science & Justice, 52 (3):204-205.
  • Gapert R, Last J (2005) The Adult Human Occipital Bone: Measurement Variance and Observer Error. Fifth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology. British Archaeological Reports (International Series) (1383):119-122.
  • Gapert R (2005) The Teampall Bán Human Skeletal Remains and the Importance of Forensic Anthropology. In: Connolly, M. (ed.). Past Kingdoms - Recent Archaeological Research, Survey & Excavation in County Kerry Proceedings of the 2005 Archaeological Lecture Series. The Heritage Council & Kerry County Council :74-77.
  • Ghita O, Gapert R, Monks L, Last J, Whelan PF (2005) A machine vision system for forensic analysis.Irish Machine Vision & Image Processing Conference (IMVIP 2005). Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.p1-8.
  • Last J, McGovern C, Gapert R (2004) Introducing Forensic Anthropology to Ireland: A Case Report on Discovered Skeletal Remains in Kildare.Medico-Legal Journal of Ireland, 10 (1):5-15.
  • Gapert R, Last J (2004) Endocranial capacity correlates with the size of the foramen magnum in human adult crania. [Published Abstract]. Journal of Anatomy, 205 (6):542-543.

General publications

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