"The Shoals of Herring" (Roud 13642) is a ballad, written by Ewan MacColl for the third of the original eight BBC Radio ballads[1] Singing the Fishing, which was first broadcast on August 16, 1960.
[2] Ewan MacColl writes that the song was based on the life of Sam Larner, a fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England.
[3]: 46 Liam Clancy, who performed the song for decades, tells a more nuanced story, saying that MacColl "tape recorded all the old fisherman up along the east coast of England.
He rhymed the lines that the fishermen had given him, and he made it into a song..."[4] It has been recorded by The Spinners, The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, The Corries, Three City Four (Martin Carthy, Leon Rosselson, Ralph Trainer and Marian McKenzie),[citation needed] Astrid Nijgh (in Dutch, as De scholen haring),[5] Schooner Fare, Patrick Clifford and Breabach, The Longest Johns .
[9] In an example of the folk process, the song's title and refrain have altered to "The Shores of Erin" when sung by some Irish traditional singers.