Clinton blackens TCD name

■ As a graduate and former employee of Trinity College, I am surprised and disappointed Trinity College awarded an honorary doctorate to Hillary Clinton.

Ms Clinton was former US secretary of state during the overthrowing of the Libyan government in 2011, which was largely assisted by US and Nato bombing campaigns.

On October 20, 2011, the day that Gaddafi was brutally murdered she was interviewed by CBS news. She laughed as she said: “We came, we saw and he died.”

She blames many people including Vladimir Putin, Barak Obama, James Comey and Bernie Saunders for her defeat in the US presidential election. But the reality is that at the time when she represented the opportunity to be the first female US president she should have been by far the preferred candidate, especially given the unsuitability of her main opponent. It is clear the majority of US citizens simply neither liked nor trusted Hillary Clinton.

Why did Trinity College award an honorary doctorate to such a failed politician? Perhaps the answer is contained in TCDs website with regard to honorary doctorates, which states: “Nominations are sought for individuals of [...] exceptional achievement whose acceptance of an honorary degree would add lustre to this university.”

This seems to suggest that the purpose of such awards is the self-serving one of adding lustre to the university.

Awards like this one to Hillary Rodham Clinton are more likely to tarnish the long-standing reputation of TCD than add lustre to it.

Dr Edward Horgan Castletroy, Limerick