The
uilleann pipes ( or //; ) are the characteristic national
bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the
Irish-language term
píobaí uilleann (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from their method of inflation. There is no historical record of the name or use of the term 'uilleann pipes' before the twentieth century. It was an invention of
Grattan Flood and the name stuck. People mistook the term 'union' to refer to the
1800 Act of Union; this is incorrect as Breandán Breathnach points out that a poem published in 1796 uses the term 'union'.