# Cecil on bagpipes - I think he was out by a century...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-on-bagpipes-i-think-he-was-out-by-a-century/351204>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [April 4, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-on-bagpipes-i-think-he-was-out-by-a-century/351204 "2006-04-04T05:05:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-on-bagpipes-i-think-he-was-out-by-a-century/351204/1 "2006-04-04T05:05:37Z")

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In this column, [Why do they play bagpipes at police funerals?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980911b.html) Cecil makes the following statement:

> [@The Perfect Master](#):
>
> A dying art a century ago, bagpipe playing was revived in large part by Irish immigrants to the New World who wanted to preserve their culture.

The problem I have with this statement is that I think he’s out by a century or so. My understanding is that bagpipes were in a parlous state at the end of the 18th century, what with the Highland clearances, the restrictions on Highland culture as as a result of the '45, the breakdown of the clan system, and so on. However, bagpipes survived in part because of revived interest in things Scottish (thanks, Sir Walter Scott and King George IV), and in part because of the British Army, which started to raise Highland regiments, with bagpipes in place of the brass band favoured by the English regiments. Piping became strongly associated with the Army and got carried all over the Empire as a result.

So, I wouldn’t have thought that a century ago (i.e. end of the 19th century), piping was in danger of becoming a lost art.

(unless **Cecil** is talking about uilleann pipes facing this danger? but the article focuses on the Great Highland Bagpipe.)

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cecil-on-bagpipes-i-think-he-was-out-by-a-century/351204/2 "2006-04-22T14:28:32Z")

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> [@Northern Piper](#):
>
> (unless **Cecil** is talking about uilleann pipes facing this danger? but the article focuses on the Great Highland Bagpipe.)

Ummmm… No, it doesn’t. It focuses on an Irish-American tradition that just happens to have picked up the Great Highland Bagpipe for practical purposes.

(Me, I’m still trying to figure out why the Irish decided that the tin whistle was a new kind of bagpipe, when it so obviously isn’t.)