Mr Mick Kenny came to work with pre-school children entirely by accident. Having been working with children with special needs, he answered a newspaper advertisement for what he thought was going to be a job with children with disabilities.
Half-way through the interview with the Kilkenny Community Early Years Project, he realised that the position involved working in a pre-school centre. However, he took the job, and has been there for seven years.
His family were initially sceptical, but are now supportive of his career choice. "At the start it was like; 'Would you not go out and get a trade?' I couldn't actually see myself changing jobs now. It's a vocation to me."
Mr Tim Moran, originally from the US, has been working with children since 1991. He also came to childcare by accident when a friend asked him to help out at an after-school centre.
"It's the buzz that I got from working with children," he says of his attraction to the job.
"It was that the reward was so real you could really feel it." He now works in the Wallaroo centre in Cork in an after-school programme.
Both accept there is a wariness among parents about their children being cared for by men, but say this dissipates quickly.
"There can be a bit of a shock or surprise at first, but there's a general trust in the management of childcare facilities, so once people know that the manager trusts you and has confidence in you, they do so as well," says Mr Moran.
"There were a few surprised faces when I started," says Mr Kenny. "Both my colleagues in the centre have been very supportive, and any surprise disappears when the parents get to know you."
However, they believe childcare is still seen as a taboo career for men, and say it will be some years before significant numbers of men make the same job choice as they do.
"I think, if the truth be told, it will probably take years," says Mr Moran. "I'm sure there's a lot of men out there who would like to work in childcare and would be great at the job, but there's not that much publicity out there about it as a career option for them."