Irish collector Tom Munnelly pointed out that there were no shanties collected in Ireland

What an interesting statement, Jim, and it certainly rings true from what I've seen. I am trying to make sense of its significance, however. With the huge number of Irish sailors that sang and contributed to the shanty repertoire, one wonders why this would be the case. Was it that they "all" ended up settling in England, North America, and Australia? (!) Or was it just happenstance that, quite literally speaking, none of the individuals engaged in song collecting in Ireland happened to run across any on that soil?

Gibb