the boys of the NYPD choir

[Bud Byrne]

It is my understanding that the Irish will buy you a pint and the Scots will not

I have met many a Scot who has plied me with drink and many an Irishman who has not. In the main the Irish & Scots are quite simillar. We both like a good drink, a good fight, an underdog, a lost cause..........etc.

[Sober]

Is the bagpipe an Irish instrument or only a Scottish one? If not, that's rather stupid of Dropkick's Murphys to play trad Irish tunes with bagpipes in them.

[CraigBatty]

Is the bagpipe an Irish instrument or only a Scottish one? If not, that's rather stupid of Dropkick's Murphys to play trad Irish tunes with bagpipes in them.

Have you not seen/heard a set of uileann pipes in full swing? If not, find some recordings by either Séamus Ennis, Paddy Keenan or Liam Óg O'Flynn immediatment, mon ami! Bagpipes can be found, as a cultural instrument, from Galicia in Spain to Galway in Ireland, from Caithness in Scotland to Allahabad in Pakistan. I could rattle of about a dozen variations on the bag, chanter and drones arrangement that qualify as bagpipes, but you may find GOOGLE a bit less windy.

Secondly, as I have seen 'highland' (aka Scottish warpipes) pipe bands playing in Ireland at events such as the dedication of a stutue to Michael Collins in his birthplace, I don't think too many Irish folk have that much of a problem with the distinction between the types of pipes.

[IrishJim]

Is the bagpipe an Irish instrument or only a Scottish one? If not, that's rather stupid of Dropkick's Murphys to play trad Irish tunes with bagpipes in them.

Bagpipes are an instrument common to both cultures, along with many other cultures throughout history.

Pipe bands, and a lot of punk/rock bands like Real MacKenzies and Dropkick Murphys, use the Great Highland Bagpipes, which are primarily Scottish. They so bear a resemblance to the Great Irish War Pipes, which are pretty rare these days. Both instruments have a limited range (only nine notes), and are usually in an odd pitch (roughly equivalent to B flat, but not perfectly so). They are also very loud, and don't blend well with other instruments, except drums (and heavily distorted electric guitars!).

The more common Irish bagpipes, which we have in my band, and which are played on some of the Pogues' songs, are the uilleann pipes. They are usually in the key of D, so they are easier to play along with other instruments, and they are at a more reasonable volume. Sometimes they can be in a different pitch, I know "Body of an American" seems to include a set of C natural pipes (at least according to my piper!). Plus, uilleann pipes have a two octave range, and are very versatile. They also sound beautiful in the right hands.

So, playing the Scottish pipes is not completely out of joint with the kind of music that DKM is playing, especially given the sound they are going for: LOUD, FAST, and OBNOXIOUS! (p.s. they are one of my favorite punk bands, so those are terms of endearment!)

[Sober]

Well thank you, I will go to sleep a little bit less stupid tonight (but I still have a long way to go )

By the way, I wasn't pretenting that DKMs were stupid.

Oh, and thank you Fintan for your half-French sentence, now I feel like at home.

[Scott]

The Scottish are the humourless intellectuals of the British Empire. They invented half the Industrial revolution and much of modern rational thought. They also built anything still standing from that era.

On the other hand, Billy Connolly is/was hilarious, which ruins the humourless bit, and you'd probably get the same response to the question, "Are you an intellectual" when asked in Dundee or Cleveland.

You've never been to Scotland, have you? The Scottish humour is up there with the best in the world. Living in Glasgow, I can vouch for that.

[Chris from Brooklyn]

As a former member of the pipe band in question I can assure all of you that it cerainly has no roots nor connection with the Scots-Irish culture, shortly after the filming of the video the band made international headlines for participating in a hunger strike commemoration in Donegal much to the chagrin of Mrs. Thatcher, Mr. Reagan, and Dr. Paisley; Garret Fitzgerald wasn't too keen on the idea either and quickly announced that the band were not welcome in Ireland.

[philipchevron]

As a former member of the pipe band in question I can assure all of you that it cerainly has no roots nor connection with the Scots-Irish culture, shortly after the filming of the video the band made international headlines for participating in a hunger strike commemoration in Donegal much to the chagrin of Mrs. Thatcher, Mr. Reagan, and Dr. Paisley; Garret Fitzgerald wasn't too keen on the idea either and quickly announced that the band were not welcome in Ireland.

Welcome, honoured guest.

[Chris from Brooklyn]

Why thank you, Mr. Chevron.

[Billy Mack]

I think this joke sums up the Irish, English, and Scottish.

Englishman, Irishman, and a Scottish gentlman walk into a bar and order some beers. As it happens a fly lands in each of their beers. The Englishman moves his beer away and refuses to drink it. The Irishman takes the fly out of his beer and drinks it. The Scottish gentleman takes the fly out and holds it buy the wings over his beer and screams "Alright spit it out you wee little bastard!"

[Mick Molloy]

I think this joke sums up the Irish, English, and Scottish.

Englishman, Irishman, and a Scottish gentlman walk into a bar and order some beers. As it happens a fly lands in each of their beers. The Englishman moves his beer away and refuses to drink it. The Irishman takes the fly out of his beer and drinks it. The Scottish gentleman takes the fly out and holds it buy the wings over his beer and screams "Alright spit it out you wee little bastard!"

That's old

[Billy Mack]

Yes it is a very old joke, and not very funny, but it gets the point across . I am fairly certain that when I started using email back in 1999 it was the first joke email I received. I have since probably received it about once a month since then. The other joke i always get sent to me is the one where all the beer moguls are at a beer "meeting of the minds" conferance and later they are at the bar and they each order their respective beers claiming theirs is the best and Arthur Guinness orders a cola and everyone asks why he is not drinking a guinness and he says "If the rest of you aren't going to drink a beer I won't either."