This article from the Irish Times features interviews with several care leavers, ahead of the fifth annual Care Day on 21 February 2020, an international celebration of children and young people with care experience celebrated in Ireland, the UK, Spain, Finland, Croatia, Australia and New Zealand. "This is the fifth annual Care Day, and its purpose is to raise awareness about the lives of care leavers and kids in care, and to also recognise their achievements," says the article.
In their interviews, the care leavers discuss issues such as stigma, having to take on care responsibilities for younger siblings, and the need to celebrate the achievements of care leavers. "It strikes me, talking to them, that as wards of the State, these are our children. We should, as a nation, be very ashamed when the system fails them and we should be proud of them when they succeed."