The Blue Plaque Trail: John Collyn

John Collyn was dean of Waterford in the latter half of the fifteenth century. He founded a Chantry Chapel, St. Saviour's and a hostel near the cathedral for poor men of the city known as the Good Men's House. This hostel was supported from the rents of property given to Collyn by some of the leading citizens of the city, including his great friend James Rice, eleven-times mayor of the city who granted Collyn '6 houses and gardens, 3 shops, 2¼ gardens, rents to the value of 30s and other tenements of unspecified value'.

One of the properties mentioned was on the site of the present Deanery Building, beneath which is an extensive undercroft. The importance of Rice's bequest was acknowledged in the rules of this alms house, as the inmates were required to rise in their beds three times a night to pray for John Collyn, James Rice and his wife Catherine Brown.

Waterford Civic Trust has installed numerous Blue Plaques in the city to commemorate a link between a particular location and a famous person or event.