Ira Mathur

In May 1995 Mathur began writing for the Trinidad Guardian with a column on the arrival of her family from India after which she was offered a weekly Sunday column which she continues to write. These include interviews with three Prime Ministers:

• Basdeo Panday (December 1995) – “I’m not God” Ira Mathur talks with Basdeo Panday
• Kamla Persad Bissessar (February 2012) – Kamla maintains steely cool
• Dr Keith Rowley (September 2020) – I am Prime Minister for all citizens .

She has also done in-depth interviews with Trinidad and Tobago's Police commissioners – Dr Dwayne Gibbs (March 2012); and Gary Griffith (July 2020).

Several of Mathur's columns have been cited in public life and in academic papers. Ministry of Finance – Interview with Minister of Finance outlining a new framework for endogenous growth "Drilling down for Development" The Judiciary of Trinidad & Tobago – Media clippings library on parenting responsibility.

Ira Mathur has begun a parallel career to journalism as a creative fiction and non-fiction writer.

In 2013 and 2014 she was shortlisted for the Trinidad based Bocas Literary Festivals. In 2015-2016 Mathur spent a year in London at the Guardian/UEA in workshops with authors Gillian Slovo and James Scudamore. She did a further course at the Faber Academy with Maggie Gee and was mentored by Jill Dawson.

In 2018 Mathur won second prize of the Caribbean based Small Axe Literary Competition for short fiction with Poui before Rain. Also in 2018, Mathur was on the shortlist for the Bridport Short Story Prize, and the Lorian Hemmingway (short story) Prizes. An excerpt from her creative memoir is anthologized in Thicker Than Water, Peekash Press, 2018.

In 2019 Mathur was shortlisted for the Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Emerging Writers Prize.

In 2020 Mathur chaired a session for the Bocas Lit Fest with author Ingrid Persaud, shortlisted for the Costa Prize for her debut novel Love after Love and Caroline Mackenzie for her debut novel One Year of Ugly.

As a freelance journalist, Mathur has contributed to The (UK) Guardian (March 1995 - June 1998) with articles including Trinidad sends three killers to the gallows and VS Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur filming in Trinidad.

Her article First comes marriage, then comes love, written for an online magazine was picked up by multiple educational facilities from India to Canada as a cultural teaching tool.[1]

Mathur was a contributor to STAN (St. Augustine News & Perspectives) published by the University of the West Indies. Notably, she has interviewed Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott What the twilight says – Ira Mathur interviews Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell at UWI – interview with Ira Mathur.

In 2020 she contributed to UWIs four day conference - LITTCON 2020: The Literature of Trinidad and Tobago, 1980 to 2020.

As a multimedia journalist Mathur has produced several documentaries and special reports. For the Government Information Service, Mathur produced an award-winning documentary on Domestic Violence in 1997 and has anchored the news for Cable News Channel 3 and CCNTV6.

In London Mathur freelanced for the Gemini News Agency, Libas International and Garavi Gujarat and presented for the BBC Caribbean Service, with Hugh Croskill.

Mathur began her career in Trinidad in 1990 with the state-owned NBS Radio 610.when she cut her teeth in journalism with her coverage of the coup attempt by the Jamaat Al Muslimeen in 1990 both locally and for the BBC World News.

Mathur was interviewed by former BBC journalist Kate Adie during the attempted coup.[2] At the time of the BBC interview gunmen holding forty hostages at the Red House and the television station in Port of Spain had surrendered, and the hostages were being released. She wrote further on that experience in the Trinidad Guardian in August 2010 and on the anniversary of the attempted coup in July 2020.

In the 90’s she also produced and presented a classical Indian music programme titled Raag Maalika for Prime 106 Radio, then a part of the CCN group.

Ira Mathur Cleaning up the Mess with CNC3

Mathur joined CCN TV6 as an anchor, documentary producer and news presenter in 1991. While there, she produced and presented the weekday programme Morning Edition for a year. Between 1991 and 1994 she produced several documentaries and special reports of note on regional figures including Sir Ellis Clarke former President and architect of the constitution of Trinidad and Tobago - Sir Ellis Clarke Documentary (1993); former Prime Minister and President of Trinidad and Tobago, ANR Robinson - Portrait of a President; and Sir Derek Walcott, the St Lucian Nobel Laureate who considered Trinidad his second home -  Special Report - Conversations: Walcott & Pantin.

In 2010 Mathur produced and presented a two part multimedia series for Guardian Media[3] CNC3 Television. The first series of 21 episodes titled Cleaning up the Mess focused on environmental issues in Trinidad and Tobago. The second was a six part series on Natural Disaster Preparedness in Trinidad and Tobago.

Ira Mathur and Family at the Taj Mahal

Mathur was born in Guwahati, India, to Colonel Mahendra Nath Mathur (b. at Aligarh, 1932), an Indian army officer and Engineer and Anvar Zia Sultana, the daughter of Shahnur Jehan Begum of Savanur and Lieutenant-Colonel Fakhr ul-Mulk, Nawabzada.

As a child, Ira Mathur travelled and lived with her parents and her brother Varun to various army postings across India including Guwahati, Sagar, Chandigarh, Shimla, and Bangalore. In India she was primarily was educated in convents.

Ira's father Mahendra Mathur left the Indian army and emigrated with his family to Tobago in the '70s to build the Claude Noel Highway.

Mathur completed her primary and secondary education in India, Tobago, and Oakdene School in Beaconsfield, UK, and her tertiary education in Canada, and England.

She holds a Liberal Arts degree in Literature, Philosophy and Economics from Trent University, Peterborough, Canada, studied International journalism in City University, London and has Law degree from King's College London through the academy of Tertiary Studies in Trinidad.

Mahendra and Zia Mathur in Tobago

Ira Mathur is married to Imshah Mohammed, an Engineer from Trinidad. She has two children, Kiran Mathur Mohammed, a banker and joint CEO of Medl; and Anika Mathur Mohammed, a lawyer, based in London who works for GLG. She had one older brother, Varun Mathur, an Engineer who died of colon cancer, and has a younger sister Rashmi Mathur who lives in Trinidad where she works as an Optometrist. Her parents, Indian ex-pats also live in Trinidad.

Ira receiving award from PM Panday

1996: Media Excellence Awards Royal Bank/ Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - Best Commentary (Print)

1997: Media Excellence Awards Royal Bank/ Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - Best Current Affairs feature (Television); Winner of the Best Feature / Documentary in the UNICEF Award Category

1998: PAHO/WHO Media Awards - Excellence in Health Journalism; Winner of the Best Feature Article in the Newspaper Category

1999: PAHO/WHO Media Awards - Excellence in Health Journalism Media Excellence Awards Royal Bank/ Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago - Best Commentary (Print)

2000: PAHO/WHO Media Awards – Excellence in Health Journalism; Winner: UNICEF - Children's Rights in the Special Awards Category

2018: Second prize winner of the Caribbean based Small Axe Literary Competition for short fiction.[4]

• Official website
• 2020 UWI liTTCon gives journalists forum to discuss pressures in the online era
• Bocas Lit Fest – Ira Mathur journalist and writer.
• Seven T&T writers shortlisted for Hollick Arvon Prize
• Prisons debate ends in a tie
• Barbados Free Press – Caribbean Women need to redefine their vision of men
• The mosque my great grandmother built