Recognising cultural gold - Union pipes

Trying to agree which of this island’s expressions of our culture(s) is the most endangered has the makings of a lively parlour game. Indeed, it may even help sustain a much beloved, but endangered tradition — the high-stool bar debate.

Trying to agree which of this island’s expressions of our culture(s) is the most endangered has the makings of a lively parlour game. Indeed, it may even help sustain a much beloved, but endangered tradition — the high-stool bar debate.

Unesco has extended its list of “intangible cultural heritage of humanity” to include the art of the Neapolitan pizza maker, or ‘pizzaiuolo’; the ritual Kumbh Mela baths taken in India; Bosnian woodcarving, and the ‘Sega tambour’ dance and song performances of Mauritius’s Rodrigues Island.

Italy has six cultural practices on the “intangible cultural heritage” list, including the ‘Mediterranean diet’ and Cremona’s musical-instrument-making.

The Irish art of instrument-making has also been recognised. Uileann pipes have been designated as an important cultural heritage symbol. 

This, at a moment when relationships on this island are as fraught as they have been for some time, may be helpfully serendipitous, as it reminds us that uileann pipes were once better known as union pipes.

The past is indeed inescapable.