Chiff and Fipple Forums

Lost me at "Mainland"...

In Ireland, the only use of the term I have ever heard is in places like the Islands off our coast where the inhabitants reference the Mainland in the context of getting to Galway, Donegal, Cork or Kerry to go shopping or to go to college/school. Any other use of the term in Ireland (in reference to Britain for example) is likely to raise a few hackles.

Steampacket wrote:Perhaps of interest there are three sets of "union" pipes up for auction in the coming G&H music instruments auction

Do you have a URL for their site?

dave boling

Do you have a URL for their site?

That auction was months ago and the instruments were discussed at some length at the time, here

myles wrote: I think the 'Grand Union Pipes' as Kenna called them - multiple regulators and a nearly-chromatic chanter - were a purely Irish development.

There are far more surviving Union pipes of British make than Irish make, including sets with multiple regulators and keyed chanters, from the 18th century and first decades of the 19th century. This appears to be simply due to the fact that there were many more makers in Britain than in Ireland.

Check out Bagpipes by Hugh Cheape where he reviews the surviving instruments, the historic makers, the historic players.

The identification of the Union pipe with Ireland appears to have happened simply because the instrument died out in Britain but survived (just barely) in Ireland. These sorts of accidents of history have happened many times in many places, for example the old Gaelic manner of dress went extinct in Ireland but survived (and evolved almost beyond recognition) in Scotland.

There are 2 reg sets and 1 reg sets from Scottish and Northern English makers, but not the fully developed instrument. This first appears in Ireland as far as we know.

The identification of the Union pipe with Ireland appears to have happened simply because the instrument died out in Britain but survived (just barely) in Ireland

This overlooks the fact that small, bellows-blown pipes were being identified specifically as "Irish pipes" by the 1760s and perhaps earlier, before the last Scottish examples. They may have been played and made elsewhere, but they were already associated with Ireland, and the later Union pipes were presented as a development of the Irish instrument - Nicholas Carolan's essay on Denis Courtney gives lots of evidence.