"Saffron" colour of Irish kilts?

[O'Callaghan]

Did you ever find a source for this claim of a mid 19th century adoption of the kilt by Irish regiments of the British Army? The earliest I have found comes from the raising of the Irish Guards during the Boer War at the turn of the century, about the same time that the myth of the kilt as an ancient Irish garment was coming into fashion.

T.

Not really, apart from assertions on various webpages. It seems to be quite commonly believed, though. I think that there are possibly provable dates for the introduction of pipers in certain regiments, and this is usually coupled with the assumption that they wore kilts. This doesn't mean they didn't, though. I have seen similar claims that the kilt as a symbol of Irish nationalism goes back to the founding of the Gaelic League (which we know was 1893). None of this meets your standards as a historian, though.

Given that the British Army co-opted the kilt as a symbol in Scotland, I have to say it does seem possible that they only adopted it for pipers in Ireland after the republicans adopted the kilt, as a similar 'spoiler'. Except that they do appear to have adopted the pipes themselves before the republicans did, so why not the kilt as well?

As an aside, the two-drone pipes do seem to have been played in Ireland at a much earlier date than either the British Army or the republicans played them. Of course, they appear to have been introduced to the British Isles via France in that form, so there is nothing uniquely Irish about pipes of that particular type. It's more the case that the three-drone version is uniquely Scottish, and therefore the two-drone version is more authentic for non-Scots. Nevertheless, you'll notice that the pictures at the beginning of the thread show pipes with three drones. I have seen older photos of Irish regiments with pipes that only have two drones, though.