At a meeting of "influential" citizens of Co Dublin of every shade of opinion in the year 1849, Viscount Monck, a Conservative and a Protestant, proposed a motion of welcome to Queen Victoria on her forthcoming visit to Ireland.
She was to be welcomed by "an undress procession of gentlemen". No nudity was intended however; "undress" meant being dressed in white trousers, blue coat with silver-plated buttons, and a blue sash over the shoulder.
Women attending events at Dublin Castle in 1886 were forbidden to attire in "half-dress" (also called "high-dress") instead of the prescribed decolletage. "Half-dress" was only permitted on presentation of a medical certificate, though a small number, on their word alone and without producing this certificate, were permitted to so dress. Among those was Viscountess Monck.
When Queen Victoria made her second visit in 1900, the city's aldermen were among the welcoming party at Leeson Street on her entry to the city. Among those was Alderman P. Monks.
When Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards was published in 1876, Viscount Monck lived on 135 acres at Charleville, in the Co Wicklow parish of Kilcamanoge. He additionally had 3,434 acres in that county, as well as 85 acres in Dublin city, 5,385 in Co Kilkenny, 212 in Co Westmeath, and 5,663 acres in Co Wexford. Julia and Christopher Monks had a single acre apiece at Coolquay Common, Kilsallaghan, in the same county.
James Monks, Huntstown, Glasnevin, had 85 acres in Co Dublin, and Eliza Monk, Banagher, had 19 acres in Co Offaly.
The 1659 Census of Ireland gives Richard Muncke, gent, as titulado of Back Lane in Dublin city, and Ann Monke one of two tituladoes of Kilrokery, in the Co Cork barony of Barrymore. In 1660, Lords Chancellor Eustace, Mountrath and Orrery, were appointed joint lords justices pending the arrival of George Monck, first duke of Albemarle.
After satisfying the arrears of the Restoration, 49 officers under the 1662 Act of Settlement came in for forfeited land in Co Wicklow, the remainder being granted to several Cromwellian soldiers. Of this, some 11,000 acres of the vast Esmonde estate in that county was given to Monck.
Taylor & Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland (1778) shows Monck esq, at Charleville, and the 1814 Directory shows Viscount Monk there. Also listed were Rev Marcus Monk, Johnstown, Co Laois; Michael Monk, Shamrock Lodge, and Nataniel Monk, Culcavy, Co Down, and Rev Thomas Monk, Coolfin, Co Wexford.
In 1822, Henry Stanley Monck, Viscount and Baron Monck, Charleville, Co Wicklow, and Ballytrammon, Co Wexford, was created Earl of Rathdown.
And talk of dressing up - or down. When the first Irish Republic was being celebrated at the beginning of June 1798 "in a weird sort of carnival" one Dick Monk, described in Pakenham's The Year of Liberty as a shoeblack, had acquired an elegant green jacket with pantaloons to match and a white ostrich feather in his green helmet.
The People's Rising (Daniel Gahan: 1995) lists him among the merchants of Wexford town involved in the grain trade, being among the Catholic officers of the United Irishmen.
After the arrest of three rebel leaders, Harvey, Fitzgerald and Colclough, Dick Monk was among other Southern leaders who made no effort to call their men into the field.
The surname Monk(s) is generally English, but betimes standing for O Manachain (Monaghan), and in some cases Mac an Mhanaigh (Mac Aveney/Mac Cavana). The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames say that this is based on the occupation `monk', from service in a monastery, or "in scandalous jest".
There is but a single Monck in the telephone directory of the Republic, that being in Co Kildare, with Monk entered 12 times and Monks 108, predominantly in the Dublin area, with a few in north Leinster and in the Cork area.
The Phone Book of Northern Ireland has six entries for Monk and two for Monks.
The placenames with Monk as the first element - Monksfield, Monksgrange, Monks Island, Monktown, and Monkstown, refer to places occupied by and/ or property owned by monks, rather than to the surname.
Charleville names townlands in counties Dublin, Louth, Offaly, Laois, and a village in Co Cork. That of Co Wicklow was first noted in a 1716 lease, and Liam Price in his The Place-names of Co Wicklow offers no explanation or Irish for this placename.