UK and S.A. Partner +2 children wish to emigrate to Ireland

[Rollma]

Sorry Im new and not exactly sure what Im doing, did post this to British Citizen ship as well. Not sure which one to post on so did both, I hope this is OK.

Hi everyone
In a bit of a bind and could use some advice.
I'm a UK citizen Wishing to move to Ireland with my South African Partner and her two boys.
She is the sole guardian of the boys as she was widowed a few years back.
We Met in December 2015 and have been seeing each other ever since. I have been back and forth to South Africa 4 times and her to the uk 1 time. Since last year May I have stayed with her whenever I could get there. If you add up the time it would amount to about 6 months of constant cohabitation, Living with her and the boy's. But we have shared financial responsibilities from May onwards. Unfortunately we never really knew that we'd need proof of relationship in the future so we never really tried to gather any and from what I know you don't get many joint accounts in South Africa. Bank accounts you can add your partner but they are not the account holder. So we never really bothered, I basically used travel cards and credit card for purchases and to draw cash for Living expenses for us. But nothing really on paper. Except for having her address as my home address for an online account and a savings account I opened a few months ago.

We can get confirmation letters from Professional friends and colleagues and from the boys gp and psychologist that they see to help with the loss of their father. Stating that I have been in their life for the specified time.

The questions I have are :
(1)Will this be enough and do we meet the criteria for her and the boys to be allowed in.

(2) If we don't meet the criteria is the work visa a viable option and how difficult is this route to follow?
She is a Financial Manager, with a practical Accounting Diploma with years of experience and glowing references , but no degrees.

Thank you for all of your help it is much appreciated