Why can't we have bagpipers at our peace marches?

[Hardrada]

I think several bagpipers playing "The Flowers of the Forest" for those dead because of the Bush Wars would be very moving.

[SeattleGirl]

1. Maybe no one has thought of inviting them before.

I rather like that idea.

[KT2000]

2. That is a great idea

bagpipes can be so emotional.

[KitchenWitch]

3. Excellent idea

I happen to know that some pipers in our area are pagan and therefore very left leaning.

[Hardrada]

5. There was a lone bagpiper playing

at our nephew's wedding outside the church as we entered and I thought it was very fine and befitting for that sort of occasion also. It was Irish pipes and melody this time and I wish I knew the tune. Anyway, we should really think of doing this sort of thing.

[obreaslan]

13. The Irish actually invented the bagpipes and gave them to Scotland...

The Scots just haven't realized it was a joke yet. :D

:rofl:

[KittyWampus]

14. Actually bagpipes came from Middle East by way of Africa!

in old creche scenes you'll find a bagpipe player. :)

[obreaslan]

15. OK, I just remembered another joke....

A piper stopped off in a pub after marching in a parade one day. After sitting in the pub for a few minutes he realized he left his bagpipes out on the back seat of his car. Worried that someone might break in he jumped up and ran back out to the car. As he approached, he could see glass on the ground from his broken back window. "Oh Sh!t," he shouted as he rushed over to the car. He looked in the back seat and found that someone had indeed broken in to the car...and left another set of pipes on the back seat.
:D

[Hardrada]

20. That's good. I am going to tell my Celtic friends that!

[icymist]

23. I once had very noisy neighbors living in the apartment above.

I needed to take up a hobby that would drown out their noise so I started to learn to play the bagpipes. They suddenly moved out the next month.:shrug:

[TheMadMonk]

4. Well they are an "instrument of war" :D

[Hardrada]

6. So are fifes and rums but they may be also used

for merriment and for rallying for other than purely military purposes.

[regnaD kciN]

7. I think what his reply was referring to...

...was the banning of bagpipes (along with the wearing of clan tartans) in Scotland by the British after the Jacobite uprising.

[Hardrada]

8. OK, see we never have banned them in Iowa

so I was not sure. I think it was a great historic reversal when the Brits decided to allow them after all. I had in mind all the war movies I recalled when the bagpipe-playing troops march by signifying that the British Army had just won the war.

[Kailassa]

9. Bagpipes don't kill people, people kill people.

- Especially bagpipers. ;-)

[baby_mouse]

10. God's breath! BAGPIPES?!?!?

I don't think *I* could stand it. Mind you I used to live next door to the busiest tourist street in Edinburgh which was packed with people playing these public nuisances, often from 6:30am, with NO DOUBLE GLAZING, the building was part of a heritage site and couldn't be changed. I 've developed a sort of mental allergy to bagpipes... bad form for a Scotsman, I know...

[dbt]

11. AND Lambeg Drums!

Let the Fascists hear about half a dozen of these Bad Boys, too:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

12. Oh, gods...

Not "The Flowers of the Forest", please?

I'm a very enthusiastic Scottish country dancer, and I love Scottish folk music, especially bagpipes, and there are many glorious scottish tunes - Atholl Highlanders, Cock O' The North, We're no Awa ta Bide awa, Two Bonnie Maidens, Will Ye No Come Back Again, and for that matter the one I take my nickname from, Donald Ian Rankin (http://jc.tzo.net/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind?P=donald+Ian+rankin&find=FIND&m=title&W=wide&limit=1000&thresh=5), but I cannot abide "The Flowers of the Forest".

I love the idea of a protest march to the tune of "Atholl Highlanders", though...

[Hardrada]

21. Thanks for your suggestions. I am going to try to locate a CD

(or maybe an LP) which might have those and give them a listen. I somewhere have a record of the pipes and band of the Black Watch and maybe that would have some of the tunes you mentioned.

[obreaslan]

16. I love the pipes...

And I think they can be very powerful in certain situations. Good idea!

It would bring tears to my eyes to see 2700 flag draped coffins marched down Pennsylvania Ave. with 100 pipers playing Amazing Grace. :cry:

[Hardrada]

22. Yes, many would feel the same way

and it is the sort of somber protest we need.

[LeftHander]

17. Not exactly peaceful are they....

THose pipes make a huge racket!

[Bridget Burke]

19. In a group, bagpipes are, indeed, weapons of war!

But one solo piper could change your opinion of the instrument.

[marions ghost]

18. good idea

there is something powerful yet ethereal about bagpipes. Somber, expansive, spiritual. Touches the heart

[sakabatou]

24. The only song that comes to mind is "Scotland the Brave"