Union Pipes - Irish Traditional Music Archive

COURTNEY’S ‘UNION PIPES’ AND THE TERMINOLOGY OF IRISH BELLOWS-BLOWN BAGPIPES 58
decline in Ireland. The word ‘union’ shrank in meaning there to
become only a shorthand reference to the hated ‘Union’, and for
many years in the mid-nineteenth century the leading Catholic
politician Daniel O’Connell led a national movement for the repeal
of the Union. It has never been explained what the connection of the
Act to the musical instrument could have been, but at any rate, as has
been seen, the term was in existence some dozen years before the
Act was passed, and it was introduced in another country. The idea
of political union was of course in public debate for some years
before the passing of the Act, but it was not very actively promoted
as early as 1788. 164 This proposed derivation of the term can
therefore be dismissed as spurious. However, after the passing of the
Act, this meaning was implied for political purposes at least once, in
Scotland in 1806, and in connection with an Irish piper Richard
Fitzmaurice:
The Scots Society, in honour of St Andrew, held... their
anniversary meeting, in the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street
164
In fact the term ‘union pipes’ was so well established by the time of the Act
of Union debate that it was used for political purposes in some satirical sheets
published by the anti-Union side in Dublin in 1799: ‘Sir Pertinax Platter...
though an hon. Gentleman had talked of Union Pipes in allusion to him, he was
not sufficiently skilled in concert music to be able to understand...’ (Proceedings
and Debate of the Parliament of Pimlico, in the Last Session of the Eighteenth
Century. No. 1); ‘At the Royal Circus, near College-Green [the Irish parliament
building]... January 15... After the Pantomime, a favourite Concerto on the
Union Pipes, By Mr. Corelli...’ (poster). Similarly an American newspaper of
the period used the term to make a political point about Ireland: ‘In the new
pantomime at Covent Garden Theatre, the Irish Harp and the Union Pipes
played in concert. We should be glad to find our Hibernian brethren inclined to
such National Harmony.’ (Daily Advertiser, New York, 25 June 1799). The
term had an even wider political application: ‘A transparency in a street in St.
Ann’s Parish [London], represented Mr. Pitt, the First Consul of France, Mr.
Windham, and Joseph Bonaparte, dancing a Fandango, to a tune played on
Union Bagpipes. John Bull appeared in a corner, with a purse in his hand, ready
to pay the piper.’ (Morning Chronicle, London, 16 Oct. 1801).