In the past 40 years, the tradition of Irish uilleann bagpiping has come from the brink of extinction to a remarkable resurgence. In 1968, when the organization Na Piobairi Uilleann was formed to fend off the demise of the instrument, founding members estimated that worldwide, only 100 pipers were still playing, and that only two full-time uilleann pipe makers were still practicing their trade. Today, Na Piobairi Uilleann counts over 3000 pipers as members of their organization, and lists more than 50 professional uilleann pipe makers in places a far flung as Spain and Australia. Today, recordings of the uilleann pipes are now intrinsic in the soundscape of world music, and images of the instrument are on the way to replacing the harp as a national icon.;In the first half of the 20th Century, uilleann piping traditions remained almost exclusively oral. With digital communications and music dispersal networks, pipers are now embracing multiple forms of technology on a daily basis as they practice their art form. These lines of communication, though (post) modern and at odds with classic ideas of traditional music, are being used by today's pipers in much the same way as pipers from the last century used their limited lines of communication -- to discuss the instrument, repertoire, and to develop the core of the tradition through dialogue. Today's pipers are spread across the globe, and as their tradition has lost a central geographic anchor, much of their sense of grounding has become reliant on these lines of communication.;This dissertation documents the reasons why uilleann bagpipes have failed to vanish, and the means through which uilleann pipers and piping enthusiasts have brought the instrument to its current popularity and level of international exposure. It is done so through discussions of both the instrument and the people playing the instrument; the repertoire and the means of broadcast; the traditions and the discussions that promulgate those traditions; the institutions and the connections; and the recordings, performers, performances and instruments and their relationships to dialogues of traditionality and authenticity.
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