An article in my local newspaper about military spending habits has aroused my curiousity. I suppose that if the Army were to purchase Generation tinwhistles, they would probably pay $600 apiece for them.
blaine
military whistles
-
Blaine McArthur
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Fresno
- Contact:
-
Blaine McArthur
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Fresno
- Contact:
-
jbgibson
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Huntsville, Alabama, USA
When Whistles are Militarized ....
from a bagpipe page:
The Great Highland Bagpipe is the only musical instrument ever to be banned as a weapon. Playing of the bagpipes was banned in Scotland by an Act of Parliament in 1747. After the last Jacobite Rising ended in 1746, the Hanoverian government tried to obliterate all Scottish culture, forbidding the wearing of tartan and carring of weapons. Since no clan ever went into battle without a piper, bagpipes were banned as a weapon of war.
and lest the Irish pipers feel left out, :
"King Richard II delivered a silencing blow to the long tradition of the Irish warpipe playing the folk airs of the Emerald Isle or marching her troops into battle. The King recognized the warpipes ability to rouse Irishmen to acts of "insurrection" and "violence." England caused for the Statute of Kilkenny to be passed in 1366 making the possession and playing of the warpipes a penal offense, which included having pipers entertain in the home. The English government became paranoid that Irish pipers acted as "...agents or spies on the English whereby great evils often resulted." The consequence of an infraction of the Kilkenny statute was death. No doubt the English were pleased with the results. The silencing of the warpipe in Ireland would not raise the Gaelic Clans anymore. This edict was again supported by Queen Elizabeth I and again by Cromwell, whose punishment was banishment to Barbadoes or other West Indies islands."
No comment about suggested destinations for modern pipers ....
and from 13 June 1996;
The story is in today's Times newspaper (The British one) It seems that a piper is being taken to court for practising on Hampstead Heath, which has a bye-law forbidding music. Mr Brooks, the piper, has denied the charge, citing a case in 1746, where bagpipes were declared to be instruments of war, not musical instruments, and a subsequent Act of Parliament which specifically stated that they were weapons. He claims he wasn't playing a musical instrument, but practising with a weapon!
The imagination boggles if his claim is successful! Will it be possible to sue pipers for assault with a deadly weapon? Will airports be equipped with bagpipe detectors?
... sure, pipes aren't whistles. Just remember "when they came for the pipers I didn't worry, because I'm not a piper ..."
Will we need bumper stickers?: "when whistles are banned, only criminals will have whistles" ... or perhaps "I'll give up my whistle when they pry it from my cold, dead hand".
--jake
from a bagpipe page:
The Great Highland Bagpipe is the only musical instrument ever to be banned as a weapon. Playing of the bagpipes was banned in Scotland by an Act of Parliament in 1747. After the last Jacobite Rising ended in 1746, the Hanoverian government tried to obliterate all Scottish culture, forbidding the wearing of tartan and carring of weapons. Since no clan ever went into battle without a piper, bagpipes were banned as a weapon of war.
and lest the Irish pipers feel left out, :
"King Richard II delivered a silencing blow to the long tradition of the Irish warpipe playing the folk airs of the Emerald Isle or marching her troops into battle. The King recognized the warpipes ability to rouse Irishmen to acts of "insurrection" and "violence." England caused for the Statute of Kilkenny to be passed in 1366 making the possession and playing of the warpipes a penal offense, which included having pipers entertain in the home. The English government became paranoid that Irish pipers acted as "...agents or spies on the English whereby great evils often resulted." The consequence of an infraction of the Kilkenny statute was death. No doubt the English were pleased with the results. The silencing of the warpipe in Ireland would not raise the Gaelic Clans anymore. This edict was again supported by Queen Elizabeth I and again by Cromwell, whose punishment was banishment to Barbadoes or other West Indies islands."
No comment about suggested destinations for modern pipers ....
and from 13 June 1996;
The story is in today's Times newspaper (The British one) It seems that a piper is being taken to court for practising on Hampstead Heath, which has a bye-law forbidding music. Mr Brooks, the piper, has denied the charge, citing a case in 1746, where bagpipes were declared to be instruments of war, not musical instruments, and a subsequent Act of Parliament which specifically stated that they were weapons. He claims he wasn't playing a musical instrument, but practising with a weapon!
The imagination boggles if his claim is successful! Will it be possible to sue pipers for assault with a deadly weapon? Will airports be equipped with bagpipe detectors?
... sure, pipes aren't whistles. Just remember "when they came for the pipers I didn't worry, because I'm not a piper ..."
Will we need bumper stickers?: "when whistles are banned, only criminals will have whistles" ... or perhaps "I'll give up my whistle when they pry it from my cold, dead hand".
--jake
-
Thomas-Hastay
- Posts: 839
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Between my Ears or in "Nord" East MN
- Contact:
Mr Gibson
Thank you for the wonderful celtic history lesson. I truly believe that in the hands of most beginers,a bagpipe is a formidable weapon!!!
On another note,can you define "penal offence"? Does it have to do with "penal envy"? and how does this symbolism tie into the phalic representation of tin whistles? Please clarify! Understanding the Irish mentality is at stake!
Thomas Hastay.
Thank you for the wonderful celtic history lesson. I truly believe that in the hands of most beginers,a bagpipe is a formidable weapon!!!
On another note,can you define "penal offence"? Does it have to do with "penal envy"? and how does this symbolism tie into the phalic representation of tin whistles? Please clarify! Understanding the Irish mentality is at stake!
Thomas Hastay.
Ah Thomas, I think we should gather at a local, order a round of Guiness and work on the word play and implications of your post. That would solve the mental anguish of any Irish person would have about the subject here in.
Maybe the famous charges of the Scots and Irish weren't so much as following the pipes into battle as they were trying to chase the band over to the British side, so that they could get some sleep.
Mark
Maybe the famous charges of the Scots and Irish weren't so much as following the pipes into battle as they were trying to chase the band over to the British side, so that they could get some sleep.
Mark
-
jbgibson
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Thomas --
Sorry for my poor typing -- I probably meant "pencil offense". That's a bit of Irish culture -- ever seen the John Wayne movie "The Quiet Man"? Remember the bit in the pub where (names are made up - I canna remember the right ones) Morrison says to his sidekick "Mick, get out me little book." "Now write this craven coward's name in it." "Now rub it out!". Thus illustrating the concept of someone being annotated in a legal proceeding, then formally "rubbed out". He had been penciled in specifically so he could be erased. Now in those days, the erasing tended to be rather permanent, with respect to rebelious Irishmen or Scots, so the threat of punishment for a "pencil offense" was a grave one. Six feet of sod and a headstone -type grave, that is.
If you wish to understand the Irish mentality, in musical circles, I understand liberal internal application of a medicinal substance known as "Guiness" helps. Being a teetotaler, I s'pose I'll never understand me own Irish genes. Hmmmm -- maybe the fact I'm part Irish, part English, and part Scots explains why I sometimes have a hard time making up me mind ....
As far as military whistles go, if pipes were partly military for signaling, what might one do on a battlefield with a Generation G? Anyone have data on how far off you can hear one?
-- Jake
Sorry for my poor typing -- I probably meant "pencil offense". That's a bit of Irish culture -- ever seen the John Wayne movie "The Quiet Man"? Remember the bit in the pub where (names are made up - I canna remember the right ones) Morrison says to his sidekick "Mick, get out me little book." "Now write this craven coward's name in it." "Now rub it out!". Thus illustrating the concept of someone being annotated in a legal proceeding, then formally "rubbed out". He had been penciled in specifically so he could be erased. Now in those days, the erasing tended to be rather permanent, with respect to rebelious Irishmen or Scots, so the threat of punishment for a "pencil offense" was a grave one. Six feet of sod and a headstone -type grave, that is.
If you wish to understand the Irish mentality, in musical circles, I understand liberal internal application of a medicinal substance known as "Guiness" helps. Being a teetotaler, I s'pose I'll never understand me own Irish genes. Hmmmm -- maybe the fact I'm part Irish, part English, and part Scots explains why I sometimes have a hard time making up me mind ....
As far as military whistles go, if pipes were partly military for signaling, what might one do on a battlefield with a Generation G? Anyone have data on how far off you can hear one?
-- Jake
On 2001-08-17 17:21, jbgibson wrote:
The civilian version can't be heard outside the pub.
_________________
Best regards,
Neil Dickey
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ndjr on 2001-08-17 17:59 ]</font>
It depends. If it's a true assault whistle, complete with bayonet lug, flash suppressor, and pistol grip, capable of fully automatic operation, then studies have shown that its note can blow a hole in 4-inch armor plate at ranges up to a mile and a half.
As far as military whistles go, if pipes were partly military for signaling, what might one do on a battlefield with a Generation G? Anyone have data on how far off you can hear one?
The civilian version can't be heard outside the pub.
_________________
Best regards,
Neil Dickey
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ndjr on 2001-08-17 17:59 ]</font>
