The Shoals Of Herring (written by Ewan MacColl) – Luke Kelly and the Dubliners

Thanks to the Coen Brothers for reviving the folk ballad The Shoals of Herring in their film Inside Llewyn Davis. Oscar Isaac, who plays the down-on-his-luck protagonist Llewyn Davis, delivers a tender rendition of the song to his father in a care facility — moments before the poignancy is undercut by the father soiling himself just as the final notes fade. The scene is consistent with the film’s tone, portraying Llewyn as a lost soul trapped in a brutal world where relentless misfortune hammers him at every turn. They sure did give him a lot of crosses to bear. However, the version of The Shoals of Herring I want to look at today is Luke Kelly and the Dubliners version.

The following was condensed from the two Wikipedia articles below:
Originally written by Ewan MacColl in 1960 for a BBC radio documentary called Singing the Fishing, the song became a staple among folk singers and was later popularized by The Dubliners. MacColl wrote it after interviewing real-life herring fishers, and it reflects the gritty reality of their lives. He wrote that the song was based on the life of Sam Larner, a fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton-on-Sea, Norfolk, England. You can hear MacColl’s original here.
Liam Clancy (The Clancy Brothers) said the following about the song (which he said was one of the most requested) before his version here: “he (MacColl) tape recorded all the old fisherman up along the east coast of England. And he never used one word of his own. … He rhymed the lines that the fishermen had given him, and he made it into a song…”

The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group’s success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals. Luke Kelly was more of a balladeer than Drew, and he played chords on the five-string banjo. Kelly sang many defining versions of traditional songs including today’s song The Shoals of Herring.

In 1980, Luke Kelly was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Occasionally Kelly was too ill to sing though he was sometimes able to join the band for a few songs. While on tour in Germany he collapsed on stage. He continued to tour with the band until two months before his death. Kelly died on 30 January 1984. One of the last concerts in which he took part was recorded and released: Live in Carré, recorded in Amsterdam, Netherlands, released in 1983. In November 2004, the Dublin city council voted unanimously to erect a bronze statue of Luke Kelly.

With our nets and gear we’re faring
On the wild and wasteful ocean
It’s out there on the deep we harvest and reap
Our bread
As we hunt the bonnie shoals of herring

O, it was a fine and a pleasant day
Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring
As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger
We were following the shoals of herring

Now you’re up on deck, you’re a fisherman
You can swear and show a manly bearing
Take your turn and watch with the other fellas
As you’re hunting for the shoals of herring

Now we fished the Swarth and the Broken Bank
I was cook and I’d a quarter-sharing
And I used to sleep standing on me feet
As we hunted for the shoals of herring

We left the home grounds in the month of June
And for canny Shields we soon were bearing
With a hundred cran of the silver darlings
That we’d taken from the shoals of herring

In the stormy seas and the living gales
Just to earn your daily bread you’re faring
From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands
And you’re hunting for the shoals of herring

Well, I earned me keep and I paid me way
And I earned the gear that I was wearing
Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes
We were hunting after shoals of herring

You’re net ropeman now, boy you’re on the move
And you’re learning all about seafaring
That’s your education, scraps of navigation
As you hunt the bonnie shoals of herring

Night and day the seas we’re daring
Come wind or calm or winter gale
Sweating or cold, growing up, growing old
Or dying
As you hunt the bonnie shoals of herring

References:
1. The Shoals of Herring – Wikipedia
2. The Dubliners – Wikipedia