{"id":334843,"date":"2026-03-08T04:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334843\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T04:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T04:25:07","slug":"young-carers-highlight-realities-of-their-work-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/334843\/","title":{"rendered":"Young carers highlight realities of their work \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saoirse Hayden (19) is a young adult carer to her two siblings, aged 17 and 12, who both have autism. <\/p>\n

Her brother has several complex mental health<\/a> issues and is prone to acting violently in moments of distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of very serious violence was directed towards me and my younger sister,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cVery little was done. We were always told we never met the threshold for risk in the house, even though the violence we faced was excessive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were times when he tried to take my life, by his own admission; that\u2019s what he said he was trying to do. This isn\u2019t me trying to say he\u2019s a bad person. I don\u2019t think that at all. I love my brother but he received no support and his issues bubbled up and up, and violence was the way it came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hayden, from Co Leitrim<\/a>, drew attention to the reality for a largely unrecognised demographic at Ireland\u2019s first National Young Carers Conference, which took place at University College Dublin<\/a> on Saturday. <\/p>\n

She co-organised the event with another young adult carer, Shannika Greene (20), who lives in Co Roscommon<\/a> and has five siblings with additional needs.<\/p>\n

\"HelenHelen Greene and Saoirse Shahzad with President Catherine Connolly at the opening of the National Young Carers Conference in the O\u2019Reilly Hall, University College Dublin on Saturday. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a topic that is so close to our hearts and it\u2019s really important to speak about it,\u201d Greene said. \u201cYoung carers\u2019 lives are affected hugely. Whether that\u2019s emotionally, financially, mentally, they just take on huge responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene said she hoped the event would spread awareness of the term \u2018young carer\u2019 and encourage people to identify with it. She said she wanted to see increased supports in schools and youth services for people whose family members have additional needs. <\/p>\n

Young carers are 18-years-old and younger, while those aged between 18 and 24 are generally recognised as young adult carers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think young carers are overshadowed so much by the issues that their siblings or parents or relatives face, that they kind of get lost in the business of the family,\u201d Hayden said. \u201cThere\u2019s already so much responsibility on everyone in the family that they kind of get lost within that, and they got lost within the services as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Catherine Connolly addressed the conference before it got under way, pledging to stand in solidarity with young carers. She said \u201ca society cannot function without their contribution\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs we know, there are over half a million family carers in Ireland, over half of whom are balancing care with paid employment,\u201d Connolly said. <\/p>\n

She added that issues affecting carers can relate to \u201cthe emotional and physical strain of caring, the burnout, the depression, the anxiety and isolation\u201d, as well as \u201cthe lack of support services and the difficulty in navigating complex healthcare systems\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"DisabilityDisability rights activist Cara Darmody was Master of Ceremonies at the conference. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

Family carers save the State billions by contributing millions of hours of hours of unpaid work every week, the President added. <\/p>\n

Cara Darmody, a 15-year-old disability rights activist, was the master of ceremonies for the conference, and Connolly remarked that she must have been the youngest ever MC at a formal event of this nature in Ireland. <\/p>\n

The conference was also attended by the Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon and was supported by L\u00e9argas, a European Union education and funding programme. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saoirse Hayden (19) is a young adult carer to her two siblings, aged 17 and 12, who both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3656,61,60,25524,410,43,21727],"class_list":["post-334843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leitrim","tag-mental-health","tag-news","tag-roscommon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}