Hi Piobairi Uilleann Inis Fa
At the risk of being jumped on from a great hight. How about this one.
Lament for the Children.
David
Try “ode to Bin laden”
or “40 Virgins in the morning”
if all else fails
go with “the old BUSH” 
There Were Roses by Tommy Sands 
Uilleann pipes in an anti-war demonstration. I don’t get it.
I’ve a recording of an interview Finbarr Furey did with the CBC a few years back. He talks about the uilleann pipes and the differences between UPs and GHB. He sums it up by saying that the GHB are for the battle and the UPs are for AFTER the battle (losers playing laments, winners playing jigs).
I’d be wary of getting my pipes smashed up by the cops, they always seem to go for people with instruments when they decide to kick off.
Also it’s hard to leg it when strapped into the pipes. I did see a bloke playing GHB’s with a gas mask on, (blowpipe going through the water/radio link bit) on tely once. He was at some anti-capitalist globalisation demo in the States. It was a full scale riot and the bloke was parading up and down playing away. 
As far as tunes/songs go any lament or slow air would probably suit, or there is a great song on a film Ken Loach did about the North of Ireland, can’t remember film or song title, anyone help me out? The Chourus starts,
‘You call me a terrorist while you’re staring down your gun,
and I stop and think and wonder at all the things you’ve done’.
Different war, same story.
Thanks for all the positive suggestions.
I think I’ll go with the Green Fields of France and/or The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.
And, I’ll be seated on a platform
And Her Majesty’s constabulary will not interfere - it’s in our unwritten constitution.
Now I’ve just got to go and learn the tunes.
Thanks again.
Peace be with you!
And, what would you play at an anti-terrorism demonstration? How come we have none of those? Oh yeah…its called war :roll:
Because the victor writes the history books while the vanquished composes the songs.
Because the victor writes the history books while the vanquished composes the songs.
Brilliant!!
I was hoping someone would say accordion music…I listen to it every single day of my life as my wife plays box…sometimes I think I wanna go shoot up something with an AK-47 (well, at least the semi-automatic version)when listening…like RIGHT NOW.
Seriously though, I know that much of the airs we play are derived from experiences of the repressed as a consequence of hatred and politics. BUT, I prefer to not see the uilleann pipes politicized or used in support of political contentions in any way…at least in the arena of an organized political event such as a demonstration. The instrument and its music cross the bridges of difference and bind us together as people. It facilitates a look beyond geographic place of birth or current residence, religious beliefs, color of skin, etc. Why use them to make a statement in an arena that divides a group of peoples? I will admit that I had mixed feelings that the pipes were played in the recent parade and protest re establishment of a holiday for Famine remembrance as mentioned in An Piobaire. I do believe, however, that the notion of a Memorial Day for those who died and suffered as a consequence of famine is a good idea.
I know that much of the airs we play are derived from experiences of the repressed as a consequence of hatred and politics. BUT, I prefer to not see the uilleann pipes politicized or used in support of political contentions in any way…at least in the arena of an organized political event such as a demonstration. The instrument and its music cross the bridges of difference and bind us together as people. It facilitates a look beyond geographic place of birth or current residence, religious beliefs, color of skin, etc. Why use them to make a statement in an arena that divides a group of peoples?
Hiya Lewis,
right you are in saying the music and the instrument can bring the most diverse sorts of people together, and in saying there is also an inherently ‘political’ dimension to this musical tradition we’ve taken to, even if many of us perceive it dimly through the distorted lens of time and geographic distance (the most egregious example being the plastic Paddy Republicanism on display in the U.S. on St. Patrick’s Day).
However, this instrument and its associated music can and probably has been insinuated into as many different ‘political’ contexts as there are players and listeners at one time or another, so why get exercised if someone wants to play at some rally or other? It may not be a cause you would want to see associated with the instrument or the music (personally, I’d sure hate to see them played at an NRA rally), but you might as well complain that Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie (or Steve Earl ) shouldn’t politicize the acoustic guitar or banjo. People will do with it what they will, but frankly I’d find it more interesting to hear what some Irish folks more closely related to the tradition (yup, a can of worms in itself) would have to say about that sort of appropriation, rather than listening to people sound off on either side of the U.S. red-blue divide about equal UP representation at our respective demonstrations of ideological principle. Or was that the red-green divide? Now Canadians, I just don’t get…
Pipe on,
Mark
Thought we Irish are very happy to have uilleann pipes becoming popular throughout the world, we nevertheless don’t forget that it also represents part of our struggle for identity at a time when the colonial rulers tried to suppress this identity (the language, the music, etc). Therefore, for us, it does represent something of a voice of the oppressed of the past, and a very important part of our cultural heritage. Much of the great tradition of laments (on pipes and in sean nos singing and in all forms of music) comes from laments for the destruction of a people and culture and way of life. So, if there is anything “sacred” about the pipes, it can only come from that source. In reality, it’s just another instrument, no more or less than any other, when not considered in this context.
From my perspective, listening this music as a kid growing up in Ireland in the 1950s was a very important part of my clinging to an identity at a time when it was all but extinguished in Ireland. The revival since then has been nothing short of miraculous.
Don’t know the name of the film but here’s the song.
JOE McDONNELL
(Brian Warfield)
O me name is Joe McDonnell from Belfast town I came
That city I will never see again
For in the town of Belfast I spent many happy days
I love that town in oh so many ways
For it’s there I spent my childhood and found for me a wife
I then set out to make for her a life
But all my young ambitions met with bitterness and hate
I soon found myself inside a prison gate
Chorus:
And you dare to call me a terrorist while you looked down your gun
When I think of all the deeds that you had done
You had plundered many nations divided many lands
You had terrorized their peoples you ruled with an iron hand.
And you brought this reign of terror to my land
Through those many months internment
In the Maidstone and the Maze
I thought about my land throughout those days
Why my country was divided, why I was now in jail
Imprisoned without crime or without trial
And though I love my country I am not a bitter man
I’ve seen cruelty and injustice at first hand
So then one fateful morning I shook bold freedom’s hand
For right or wrong I’d try to free my land
Chorus
Then one cold October morning trapped in a lion’s den
I found myself in prison once again
I was committed to the H-blocks for fourteen years or more
On the Blanket the conditions they were poor
Then a hunger strike we did commence for the dignity of man
But it seemed to me that no one gave a damn
But now, I’m a saddened man I’ve watched my comrades die
If only people cared or wondered why
Chorus
May God shine on you Bobby Sands for the courage you have shown
May your glory and your fame be widely known
And Francis Hugues and Ray McCreesh who died unselfishly
And Patsy O’Hara and the next in line is me
And those who lie behind me, may your courage be the same
And I pray to God my life is not in vain
Ah but sad and bitter was the year of 1981
For everything I’ve lost and nothing’s won.
Slan,
D. 
Fair play to ye Max,
We’ve a big anti-war demo coming up next month at Shannon Airport and there’ll be plenty of pipers at the seisiuns afterwards.
Anyone got the music of the Flowers of the Forest? I’d like to give that one a go.
Maybe the prisoners being transported to the torture camps will hear us.
Flowers of the Forest has been around for a long time. Its a Scottish tune and used to be played on GHBs a lot. I haven’t heard it for awhile. Here’s a link to get you started:
http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiFLWRSFOR;ttFLWRSFOR.html
djm
there’s no such thing as a good anti-war song 
… mostly at funerals… a by-product of war…
There’s a stellar recording of this song by the scottish singer Dick Gaughan on Parrallel Lines his album with Andy Irvine. No pipe, whistle or flute content, but his electric guitar (!!!) solo in the middle would be my nominee for the finest use of electric guitar in a traditional recording.
And it is trad, not folk rock.
Yeah, and perhaps you would protest the methods used by us Irish in 1916 if that were happening today. I work accross from the Twin Towers and lucky to have survived their fall. I was right there when people jumped in suits and dresses from 100 stories holding handsfter another and another and another. I saw hundreds of firefighters walk into their deaths, saw hundreds of funeral parades, and 24 members of my town on Long Island, as well as friends, a rugby mate, and family of friends perrished that day. I will tell what torture is big shot, and I am sure that the Londoners on the subways and Spaniards on the trains could tell what torture looks like as well. Many soldiers are making the ultimate sacrifice for liberties never seen before in Iraq. Even the anti-Bush media acknowledged this week that the good things, and there are many, are not getting published/broadcasted. Stick your politics on some other board and lets stick to the music and the pipes. Or else, I will have to start a thread for tunes about the heros.
Wait a second here… you play RUGBY?
Patrick.