uilleann pipes
Sign in to saveAlso known as Irish organ, uilleann pipe, uilean pipe, uileann pipe, uilliann pipes, union pipe, Irish Bagpipes
characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland
Key facts
- Other names
- Union Pipes , Irish Pipes
- Classification
- Aerophone Wind Woodwind Bagpipe
- Hornbostel sachs classification
- Mixed: 422.122.2 & 422.221.1, (Set of reedpipe aerophone )
- Developed
- Mid 18th century to early 19th century across Ireland
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- bagpipe
- Country of origin
- Republic of Ireland
- Image
- UilleannPipes.jpg
Show 4 more facts
- Commons category
- Uilleann pipes
- Hornbostel-Sachs classification
- 422.122.2+422.221.1
- described at URL
- nationalinventoryich.chg.gov.ie/uilleann-piping
- indigenous to
- Ireland
via Wikidata · CC0
~21 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A half-set being played
The uilleann pipes (/ˈɪlən/ IL-ən or /ˈɪljən/ IL-yən, Irish: [ˈɪl̠ʲən̪ˠ]), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms píobaí uilleann (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term uilleann pipes before the 20th century. The name was an invention of Grattan Flood and it stuck. People mistook the term "union" to refer to the 1800 Act of Union; however, this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term "union".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “uilleann pipes” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.