Bill, the use of pipes as an act of defiance, and England's attempt to silence the pipers are well known facts. But, like you, I find the debate to be pointless. The fact is that this instrument has come to be identified almost exclusively as an Irish instrument, and the name accepted as proper by the vast majority of the players is "Uilleann Pipe". We are a small, but growing, community as the rest of the world figures out just how versatile this instrument is. It is difficult to learn to play, but the setup/tuning of it is what causes most of the problems. As it becomes more popular, it will also become more standardised and this will help resolve some of the problems. We are starting to see a movement for more standardised teaching of technique, which I think is a good thing in terms of the basic skillset. But at some point, it is up to the piper to go on and develope his/her own technique. That is one of the things that set us apart from our cousins in the Highland piping community. One is judged, in that community, by how rigidly they follow the standards of how a tune is played. Those standards seem to serve that discipline well, but UP'ers prefer the whole idea of never playing the same tune the same way twice. Musical scores are fine in our tradition, as long as you only use them to learn it the first time. After that, play it like you feel it.

Mick