Pet hate is when people say something long enough and to enough people that it becomes truth. My case in point? the word uilleann, it does not mean elbow in Irish! It is a derivative of the word for elbow “uille”, an anglicasation if you will, so please stop saying it is an Irish word. Please!
Not an anglicisation, but the genitive case of uille: píb uilleann = elbow pipe. it’s a reasonably credible but as far as I know undocumented etymology, and therefore to be treated with caution.
The counter-explanation that “union pipes” is the original term but that the word “union” was judged politically undesirable by nationalists is also credible. However, the fact that it has been found in older written sources than píb uilleann doesn’t guarantee its accuracy either.
I suspect that adherence to either etymology casts more light on the views of the adherent than on the accuracy of either view.
There’s also Shakespeare’s “woollen bagpipe” which appears to support the case of the uilleann school, apart from the fact that old Bill was well dead before the uilleann pipes as we know them had been developed.
On 2002-10-02 08:43, Mark_J wrote:
It is spelled Uilleann, but it is pronounced “Throat Warbler Mangrove.”
Hands up, and don’t try to escape. I have a whistle, and I know how to use it. Carefully reach down and remove the Monty Python DVD from the player. Put it on the ground. Raise your right foot and stomp on it several times. Now go play some music on the pipes. I don’t care which.
Sheesh!
Bill Whedon
Ever heard the one that they were originally made in Northumberland?
Cheers
Alan
I am no Irish Scholar, Historian, Ethnomusicologist… heck, I’m willing to admit I don’t even play uilleann pipes. At the end of the day however it must be stated that in the Gaeltacht most people don’t know much about etymology, or slender vowels and most pipers probably know about as much themselves. Anglicisation is an irreversible bit of linguistic history and it’s a continuing trend, like it or not (I personally don’t).
Most Irish speakers learn their language like musicians learn their music: by ear. Language changes and adapts, often bending or breaking the rules in doing so. Oddly enough so does music.
Since a lot of us on the message board are retro-learning it can seem confusing or disconcerting when there are inconsistencies. But I ask any Anglophone to explain why we pronounce laughter “laffter” and naughty “notty” instead of “naffty.” And why did Americans change the spelling of draught to look as it sounds (draft)?
What’s proper and what’s practice are two different things and it’s easy to confuse them. Sometimes we can make practice proper and other times we find out that what was previously known as proper actually isn’t and what was practice actually is proper.
So the answer to the “Uilleann Question” is somewhere in that grey area.
I hope that didn’t clear things up, if you get my meaning.
Cheers,
Aaron
How about castrated pastoral pipe? 
Marc
Puts a whole new light on the old sheep skin “bags.”
Dionys