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Born in Arima, in the small village of Mount Pleasant, Irene Medina had big dreams of becoming a writer and in particular, a journalist.

With just a Secondary School education, at the time, she developed a deep love of writing through her insatiable appetite for books.

At the age of twenty one, she approached the publisher and editor of the then explosive weekly newspaper The Bomb, Patrick Chookolingo, which signalled the start of a long and illustrious career in journalism spanning four decades.

After being asked to produce a one page account of her job interview, which ‘Choko’ knew only she could write since she was the person being interviewed, Ms. Medina was hired on the spot.

Forty six years later she can boast of a very prolific and influential career in the media, having learned the profession from the bottom up to the positions of News Editor, Assignment Editor, Editor and Editor in Chief.

She has worked at every major daily news house in Trinidad and Tobago and has also contributed regionally for the Caribbean Media Corporation and The Nation Newspaper in Barbados.

She has also contributed to articles published in The Daily Mail in London.

Ms. Medina has covered all the ‘beats’ – the courts, the crime scene, human interest stories, the environment, but it was as a political writer and commentator that she has made her name.

Needless to say she has covered some five general elections; several Caricom Heads of Governments Conferences and numerous Local Government elections.

She has interviewed prime ministers and vagrants, presidents and prisoners, world renowned musicians and revered artists.

She attended the inaugural swearing-in of Jamaica’s first female Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller and has also interviewed such charismatic leaders like the late Grenada Prime MinisterMaurice Bishop and Dominica’s first female prime minister and (to date only female prime minister of Dominica) Dame Eugenia Charles.

She has also interviewed the likes of US Human Rights activists Andrew Young during a visit to this country.

As a member of the Santa Rosa First People’s Community, Ms. Medina has been at the forefront of highlighting the struggles of her community over the years and still continues to identify with the First Peoples.

A social activist in her own right, Ms. Medina was instrumental in leading a petition for pipe-borne water in her village and for better roads and conditions.

After a long career of writing of hard hitting political stories, she has self-published a series of children’s short stories. Motivated by the experiences of her own five children, she sought to capture the essence of growing up in the unspoilt natural surroundings in the Mt. Pleasant village through which runs the Blanchisseuse River.

Her first book, entitled “The River Nymphs and the Tree Frog” reflects a time in our society when the river was the centre of village life. Her second book entitled - The Mermaid of Maracas Bay - again focuses on a time when children were the lifeblood of Village life, a place where they learnt their first lessons about the beauty of the environment and the innocence of village life.

Ms. Medina has also worked as the Media Relations Advisor to the Ministry of National Security and is currently the Communications Consultant attached to the Ministry. She has also reconnected with her academic life and now holds a Master’s Degree in Mass Communications (Merit) from the University of Leicester in the UK.

C. S. Lewis