Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Bagpipe of Ireland and Scotland,” on the intertwined roots of two cultures and an instrument that unites them, a talk and performance by Edward Kitlowski, scholar of Scottish and Irish history and director of the US Naval Academy Pipes and Drums band.

Come to Profs and Pints to gain a richer understanding of a stirring sound you hear whenever Saint Patrick’s Day and National Tartan Day—the annual April 6th celebration of Scotland’s 1320 Declaration of Independence—come around.

Learn about the bagpipe as a legacy of the shared history of Ireland and Scotland with Ed Kitlowski, an accomplished bagpiper and pipe major who studied Scottish and Irish history at the University of Edinburgh and has published articles on the bagpipe’s history.

He’ll take you back in time to when the Irish and Scottish people considered themselves to be the same and he’ll look at key aspects of their shared history. You’ll learn how research using Roman records has identified Saint Patrick’s birthplace as being in Scotland, how an Irish cleric brought Christianity to Scotland, and how the word Scot comes from the Irish who settled in Scotland, bringing their culture and language.

The Gaelic Scots and the Irish continued to remain connected during throughout the Middle Ages, often to the dismay of the English and Lowland Scots. You’ll learn about the forces that separated Ireland and Scotland and how the bagpipes continued to be a unifying factor between them and, later, between the Catholics and Protestants in Ulster and the Republic of Ireland.

Focusing his attention on the instrument itself, Kitlowski will tell discuss the bagpipe’s workings, play some notes in illustrating key points during his talk, and break into a performance at the end.

Don’t worry. There’s absolutely zero chance you’ll sleep through this class. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 5. The talk begins at 6:30.)

Image: A bagpiper in the Scottish Highlands. Photo by Javier Rodríguez /Creative Commons.