Margaret Dunn is piping up for gender equality

Cork-born bagpiper Margaret Dunn has blazed a trail for female musicians in Scotland, writes Ellie O’Byrne

THE image of the piper is deeply ingrained in perceptions of Scottish culture and yet one of the best known female bagpipers, with a string of prestigious awards to her name, is an Irishwoman.

To Margaret Dunn, who grew up the daughter of a pipe-band major in Cullen, Co Cork, the “double whammy” of being female in Scotland’s male-dominated piping world and being an Irish interloper to boot meant she had something to prove.