The thread Matt is where it is because there is NO 2019 UK Folk revival. The OP is worth a visit by all who wish to comment. You would then discover that the thrust of it was that youngsters coming out of traditional music courses in UK Universities are failing to set up folk clubs to provide artists with paying gigs.

That a learned American researcher thinks of "Shoals of Herring" as being typical of the songs sung by Kerry fisherman doesn't surprise me, I mean the words fit so well don't they!

"Oh it was a fair and a pleasant day
Out of YARMOUTH harbour I was faring" - East Anglia

"Well we fished the Swarte and the Broken Bank" - both famous herring fishing areas in the North Sea off the coast of East Anglia

"Well we left the HOME ground in the month of June
And for canny 'SHIELDS we soon were bearing" - North Shields the fishing port for Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Be interested to hear what Kerry fisherman's song our learned researcher is using as his point of comparison. Another big difference however would be that a traditional song about the sea/fishing as sung by Kerry fisherman would in all probability have been composed by someone who actually knew and had experienced what they were singing about, whereas "Shoals of Herring" was written to order for the BBC by an actor/singer/songwriter as part of a trilogy about the North Sea fishing industry.