The predecessor of the bagpipe was used in ancient Egypt. Some of these instruments are several thousand years old and have been found in the Egyptian pyramids. Notice that the chanter and chanter reed look very much like an Egyptian snake charmer. The ancient Celts sailed to Egypt and brought back a few musical instruments that evolved into the Irish Warpipe. Later, the bagpipe was the instrument of the Roman infantry while the trumpet was used by the cavalry. From Roman times on, bagpipes existed in many forms and in many places around the world. For instance, they were very common in the Medieval and Renaissance periods in Europe. In each country the basic instrument was the same, a bag with a chanter and one or more drones. Some of these were mouth blown while others used a bellows attachment to supply the air. The bag provided a sustained tone while the musician took a breath and allowed several tones to be played at once.
Historians have never agreed on the exact history of the bagpipes in Ireland and Scotland. With respect to the instrument's Irish connection, William H. Grattan Flood wrote in his The Story of the Bagpipe (London, The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., 1911) as follows.
"No better proof of the antiquity of the bagpipe in Ireland need be adduced than the references to it in the Brehon Laws of the fifth century. In this most ancient corpus special legislation is enacted as regards the bagpipe, or cuisle. The word cusle in old Irish--of which the modern form is cuisle--means the pulsing of the artery in the wrist, but primarily the vein, a blood-vessel, hence a pipe. At the great Feis (Assembly, or Parliament) of Tara the pipers occupied a prominent position, as we read that the cuisleannach, or pipes, were among the favourite instruments heard in the banqueting hall (teach miodhchuarta). (Citation to Petrie's Antiquities of the Hill of Tara.) This Feis was held from pre-Christian days until the year 560, when King Dermot MacFergus presided over the last Feis, after which date "Tara's Halls" were for ever deserted."
You may ask, if the Irish had the bagpipes for so long, why is it we tend to associate the instrument mostly with Scotland? At this point, we can only speculate. Part of the answer probably lies in England's ruthless subjugation of the Irish over the centuries, and specifically with Oliver Cromwell's penal laws of the seventeenth century. The penal laws forbade, among other things, the Irish from possessing any "instruments of war." Since, the Irish then as now refer to the bagpipes as "warpipes," it is quite likely that the Irish pipers were either executed or forced into exile. The bagpipe or "warpipe" was outlawed for over 200 years in Ireland. Coincidentally, it is around this period that the uilleann pipes (the Irish bellows blown version) was developed. Uilleann pipes must be played sitting down, and were probably not considered much of a subversive threat.
The origins of the pipes in Scotland is uncertain. Some say it was a Roman import. Others believe that the instrument came from Ireland as the result of colonization. Another theory is that they were developed there independently. Historians can only speculate on the origins of the Scottish clans' piob mhor, or great Highland bagpipe, but the Highlanders were the ones to develop the instrument to its fullest extent and make it, both in peace and war, their national instrument.
