Irish Endocrine Society Annual Meeting to be held in Cork

The Medical Independent speaks to the President of the IES Prof Steven Hunter about the Society’s upcoming meeting

The Annual Meeting of the Irish Endocrine Society (IES) will take place at University College Cork (UCC) on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 November 2026.

The two-day meeting will be the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society and will feature an array of presentations from specialists in the field of endocrinology.

The gathering will be held in the College’s Tudor Gothic Revival building known as the Aula Maxima or ‘Great Hall’, built in 1849, and in the more modern Devere Hall, located in the College’s Student Centre.

Speaking to the Medical Independent (MI), Prof Steven Hunter, IES President and Consultant Endocrinologist, Regional Centre for Endocrinology and Diabetes, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, said the Annual Meeting has many dimensions and benefits.

Prof Hunter said “the general, social aspect is very important”, in addition to the updates on developments in the field delivered by international and national experts. He added that continuing professional development is another important aspect and that the meeting offers “opportunities for trainees to present their work and research”.

Prof Hunter said ‘the general, social aspect is very important’, in addition to the updates on developments in the field delivered by international and national experts

“We are a growing and developing group. It started 50 years ago with just a handful of people who used to meet when they were going to meetings in England and elsewhere and then they decided they could do something locally, and that is what [the IES] has grown out of.”

Prof Hunter highlighted the special role of local organiser Dr Mark Hannon, Consultant Endocrinologist and General Physician, Bantry General Hospital, Cork, in organising this year’s event and thanked him for his work.

“We always have a local host for these meetings and Mark Hannon is our local host this year. He has done a lot of the work and we thank him for that.”

The first session consists of an RCPI specialist training committee meeting and IES subsection meetings in Devere Hall on Friday morning (13 November).

A ‘Meet the Professor’ session with the Hadden Lecturer, Prof Mirjam Christ-Crain, Professor of Endocrinology, University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland, will run concurrently in the Aula Maxima. Six case presentations by trainees and related discussions will take place during this session.

Following a trade exhibition and poster presentations in Devere Hall, the meeting will formally open with a welcome address by Prof Hunter, after which four oral presentations will be delivered.

Before lunch, the Paediatric Keynote Lecture will be given by Prof Colin Hawkes, Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist, Cork University Hospital (CUH), in keeping with the focus on paediatric matters throughout the morning.

Prof Hawkes is Associate Professor at UCC and Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania, US. He completed subspecialty training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and was appointed a consultant there in 2015. In 2020, he returned home to Cork, where he now provides care at CUH and his private clinic.

Prof Hawkes’ clinical interest is in the area puberty and disorders of growth. Through his work he helps to support children who may have short stature, delayed growth, early or late puberty, and/or related developmental challenges. He has extensive experience in managing a range of hormone-related conditions in children and adolescents.

At his clinic, Prof Hawkes sees children from across Ireland, and on occasion internationally, for expert assessment.

After lunch, three oral presentations will be delivered on the subject of person-centred diabetes communication; bariatric surgery; and vascular calcification under diabetic conditions in human lung microvascular endothelial cells.

Next on the agenda are six short, invited case presentations. They will focus on a range of different conditions, including hypophosphatasia and hypercalcaemia in pregnancy.

Prof Sean Dineen, University College Hospital Galway, and National University of Ireland, Galway, will then deliver a talk titled ‘Celebrating 50 years of the Irish Endocrine Society’, outlining the highlights from the IES over the past five decades.

The final event of the day will be the Hadden Lecture by Prof Christ-Crain.

Her lecture is titled: ‘Vasopressin deficiency: New developments in diagnosis and treatment’.

Prof Christ-Crain leads a clinical research team in the field vasopressin-dependent fluid disorders and oxytocin. She has published more than 400 manuscripts and received several awards for her research. She is currently President-Elect of the European Society of Endocrinology.

Lifetime Achievement Award

At the Gala dinner later that evening in the Kingsley Hotel, Prof Hunter will present the Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2026 to the recently retired Consultant Endocrinologist Prof Chris Thompson, a widely recognised pituitary diabetes expert.

Prof Thompson moved to Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, from Glasgow in 1997, where he raised over €500,000 to build a new day centre and set up the first diabetes shared care service and the first adolescent diabetes service in the country.

He served as Chairman of Diabetes Ireland between 1999 and 2004, during which time he led the negotiations to include treatment for hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, and heart disease on the long-term illness scheme for diabetes. He also led the Diabetes Ireland ‘Four Peaks Challenge’ to Kilimanjaro and to the Canadian Rockies.

Prof Thompson has published nearly 300 papers, review articles, and book chapters and has a h-index of 69. He established an international reputation in pituitary endocrinology, and in particular salt and water balance, and was lead author of many seminal papers describing the pathophysiology of vasopressin secretion. He was the senior author on international guidelines for the management of hyponatraemia.

Second day

On Saturday (14 November), proceedings will commence with the IES Annual General Meeting in the Aula Maxima. Two short oral presentations will follow before the McKenna Lecture. The Lecture will be delivered by Prof Carla Moran, Consultant Endocrinologist at the Beacon Hospital, Rotunda Hospital, and St Vincent’s University Hospital, all in Dublin.

Prof Moran’s lecture is titled: ‘Advancing diagnosis, phenotyping, and management of rare thyroid disease’.

The Associate Professor at University College Dublin has established a thyroid research group and a clinical referral service for rare thyroid disease in Ireland.

She completed a thyroid Fellowship and PhD in the University of Cambridge, UK, and has a clinical and research interest in thyroidology. Her subspecialty expertise includes disorders of thyroid hormone action (including syndromes of resistance to thyroid hormone), investigation of discordant thyroid function tests, and drug-induced thyroid dysfunction. She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, including original research papers, book chapters, and review articles.

Four more oral presentations will follow before the closing remarks and final presentation of awards and grants.

Conference Agenda: Irish Endocrine Society, Annual Meeting, University College Cork, 13–14 November 2026