The former president and current UN commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, has raised serious objections to a "gender imbalance" in the awarding of honorary degrees by Trinity College Dublin.
Mrs Robinson, in her capacity as chancellor of the college, has written to Trinity complaining about the lack of women given honorary degrees.
She says it "reflects badly on all concerned and I am not comfortable with conferring degrees on a group of distinguished recipients representative of only one gender".
In the strongly worded letter, Mrs Robinson, who as chancellor hands out the degrees at award ceremonies, complains that the gender imbalance of the recipients' list "might have been an acceptable practice a century ago, it is not today".
The letter was sent from her office in Geneva in September 2000 to the former provost, Dr Thomas Mitchell.
More recently, she has made her views known on the issue to the newly installed provost, Dr John Hegarty.
Mrs Robinson, as chancellor, confers the awards on the recipients, and she performs the ceremony several times each year.
In her September 2000 letter she also encloses a list of women who might be considered for the honour.
The letter was made available to The Irish Times, under the Freedom of Information Act. But the college refused to release the names she suggested and blacked them out.
Trinity said the release of the names would compromise the people involved and "could prejudice the future effectiveness" of the honorary degrees system.
Her letter was prompted after the college awarded 12 honorary degrees in the winter of 1999 and summer 2000. No women made either of the two lists drawn up by the college's honorary degrees committee.
In his response of September 19th, Dr Mitchell, told Mrs Robinson: "I share your concerns about the gender imbalance in last summer's list of honorees. I hope that situation will not occur again and I am passing on your letter to the honorary degrees committee.
"It is a comprehensive list of distinguished women, and since it is often difficult to get people to propose names, I am sure the committee will be delighted to have this extensive list."
Mrs Robinson's concerns would seem to be grounded in fact. Of the 150 awards made in the last decade, only about 25 were to women.
Trinity sources in their defence say the awards are often given to world political figures, and regrettably, there are not as many women in this category as men, although this is changing.
Among the women who have had the honour bestowed on them are the President, Mrs McAleese; Ms Fiona Shaw, actress; Ms Carol Moffett, businesswoman; president; Ms Jean Kennedy Smith, former US ambassador; and writer Ms Jennifer Johnston.
Below is the full text of the letter from Ms Robinson to Trinity: Dear Provost, Further to our conversations at the July commencements I write to express my concerns with regard to a gender imbalance apparent in the awarding of honorary degrees by the university during the recent past.
I believe it reflects badly on all concerned when there is such clear imbalance and I am not comfortable with conferring degrees on such a group of distinguished recipients representative of only one gender. This might have been an acceptable practice a century ago, it is not today.
There are numerous distinguished men and women that it would be appropriate for the university to recognise; arising from the fact that there were no women honoured in the July commencements I attach a list of women that could be considered.
The list is indicative only and not in any way comprehensive; for example, I have not included some of my own college contemporaries like . . . and . . . who would merit inclusion on any list of excellence.
Warm regards, Mary Robinson.