The Blue Plaque Trail: Waterford - Nefoundland

Trade between Waterford and Newfoundland was of prime importance in the development of the city in the eighteenth century. By 1770 this route absorbed between 10% and 15% of the city's exports. Waterford merchants provisioned English ships sailing from Bristol and the West Country ports to Newfoundland for the fishing season and Waterford people migrated there also in search of employment. Thousands from Waterford and the south east traveled to fish the Grand Banks from the second half of the eighteenth century. In time many of those who worked on the fisheries became permanent settlers and by the beginning of the nineteenth century Newfoundland was referred to as 'merely Waterford parted by the sea.'

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.