Edinburgh's Ban on Bagpipes
The EU Told Pipers to Pipe Down, Now They've Been Told to Shut Up
Jun 12, 2008
Bagpipes, Sean Connery, haggis, and the Loch Ness Monster. Redheads, shortbread, plaid, kilts, whisky, wool and Braveheart... a few things that come to mind when we think of Scotland.
Of course many of these things have been exaggerated to the point where some Scots “cannae” stand to see, for example, another See You Jimmy Hat, but others, the bagpipes for example, are so deeply connected to the country’s history that the culture barely makes sense without them.
It seems if the powers that be get their way, bagpipes may be no more. Today the Edinburgh Evening News reported that pipers have been banned from the city’s High Street.
The Royal Mile, in the country’s capital, Edinburgh, is probably the highest-tourist traffic street in the city. People come from all over the world to walk the mile-long stretch that reaches from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace. On the Mile (or High Street) one can find plenty of shops to buy fudge, whisky, Harris Tweed or Celtic jewellery. The Mile is home to visitor attractions like Mary King’s Close, St. Giles Cathedral, the Fringe Shop, as well as more ghost tours than you’re heart can handle.
One of the main draws for tourists who have come for a little taste of Scotland, however, has surely been the pipers that line the High Street. To tourists who are used to boring buskers with a harmonica and acoustic guitar, it is an authentic treat to see a Scot in his kilt playing a traditional song.
Those who live in the city, however, do not seem to share these sentiments.
According to an article published in the Edinburgh Evening News, June 12, 2008, offending pipers may have their instruments seized, could be arrested, or served with an Antisocial Behaviour Order (Asbo). The EEN says in the last year the city’s police dealt with up to 20 complaints a day about the racket the pipers were making.David Beckett, the City Centre Councillor told the paper he supports the police action. “I can understand how some people may think it detracts from the tourist value of the Mile but at the end of the day we have to look after our residents first.”
A strange attitude, it seems, to be coming from the capital of the country that is gearing up for Homecoming Scotland, the 2009 campaign to lure Scottish decedents and expats back to their homeland in celebration of the famous Robbie Burns’ 250th birthday.
The ban comes only two months after papers reported the European Union decided bagpipes pose a serious health and safety risk. It sounds like a joke, perhaps, but very few pipers were laughing.
“There is no question of the 'new' rules silencing bagpipe playing,” says the European Commission website. “There are plenty of practical ways to control or reduce musicians' exposure to excessive noise in a cost-effective way without stopping them from playing. These include various types of hearing protection devices such as in-ear monitors, flat response earplugs specially designed for musicians . . . using absorbers, resonators and screens in rehearsal and performance areas and changing the layout of bands or order of play to reduce concentration of the loudest music.”
Musicians have said they need to be able to hear what they are playing, as well as what the musicians in their bands are playing.
Perhaps it is High Street residents that should think about getting earplugs.
These two recent stories have brought to mind the 1745 bloody battle of Culloden. The Jacobite rising saw Bonnie Prince Charlie defeated and the Highlanders were banned from wearing tartan, speaking Gaelic and playing their pipes.
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