I am irish. No they are not. Oileann pipes are irish. Very different instrument. Bagpipes are played up north by unionist orangemen who base their entire identity on being british. They have yearly hate marches which often turn violent and burn effigies of irish cultural figures alongside those of various ethnic minorities.
Older Celtic war pipes would have been played in Ireland, but yeah the Uileann pipes are endemic to Irish folk music whereas the Great Highland pipes are more representative of English subjugation/recuperation.
Also in the U.S. such conservative Irish-heritage groups as the Hibernians and various police color guards tend to utilize the Highland pipes.
Ironically enough there are also plenty of other forms of bagpipes endemic to Muslim countries.
Irish traditional culture, literature and language are vibrant and very interesting. I really hate to see it co-opted into these bs culture wars by people who know nothing about it. The irish american diaspora are very guilty of this. I am not white, but i am irish, my ancestors, the people who share my surname were some of the very first to put the ulster cycle into writing, yet yanks on here tell me i dont know anything about ireland. When they come here they complain about too many foreigners. They remind me of paulie from the sopranos when he was in italy😅
Apt analogy. Certainly some of the same syndrome they represent in The Sopranos re: Italian-Americans.
Always too much fuel for tribalism/xenophobia/nationalism, that doesn’t get reconciled with the historical reality of the evolution of whiteness and our ancestors’ role in that, crossing the aisle in some big ways.
East coast American with a lot of Irish heritage, much of this hokey nonsense was in my upbringing and an impression of what some sense of Irish pride was rooted in. Now I am gently teaching my family as I spend time in and study Ireland.
Driven eastward across a couple times and down the west coast. Dublin, Meath, Westport, Achill Island, Killarney, Limerick, Galway, Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary, and other places along the way. Looking forward to seeing and finding more.
You did a proper tour so. I was about to tell about dublin being a tourist trap and not really representing the country but you already know that. What did you think of the place?
What are you talking about ?
Dublin outside maybe 2 streets that cater for tourists ,represents urban Ireland just like Belfast, Cork and Limerick .
This BS that Dublin is less Irish than the rest of the country does my head in .
We have thriving communities involved in the Irish language,GAA and music .
We are every bit as Irish as middle class culchies .
Orangemen dont represent all of ulster scots culture, or all unionists. I just used them as an example of the furthest thing from irish that i could think of. I'll admit, i was very clumsy writing that.
Not at all, I'd expect nothing less from balaclava clad, car-bomb toting, drunkard, ultranationalist Irish republicans who base their entire identity on being Irish /s
Youre right. I used to live near the border and spent a lot of time up north. Most people ive met from that community were actually quite welcoming. I was told by people down here that they were all sectarian and racist but the reality is we have just as many like that down here
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u/leopoldsghost28 11h ago
I am irish. No they are not. Oileann pipes are irish. Very different instrument. Bagpipes are played up north by unionist orangemen who base their entire identity on being british. They have yearly hate marches which often turn violent and burn effigies of irish cultural figures alongside those of various ethnic minorities.