"The late song Collector, Tom Munnelly always argued that Ireland has no great history of Sea Shanties, but the nearest he ever came to hearing one was from a gang of Navvies in Dublin singing a made-up nonsense piece while hauling a length of cable through a pipe
Jim Carroll "

Singing made up nonsense seems to be innate, I've been listening with delight to my granddaughter do it since she was very young.