They are also among the most loved and highly regarded, even enjoying the respect of people who say they generally can't stand bagpipes.
And the uilleann pipes (pronounced illen) have certainly had an upsurge in interest. Their official society, the Dublin-based Na Piobairi Uilleann, has active members all over the world and reports growing numbers of players and makers.
Their popularity has undoubtedly been helped by some great ambassadors. Paddy Maloney of the internationally popular Irish group The Chieftains has introduced the sound of the uilleann pipes to countless audiences throughout the world.
Other fine pipers who have enjoyed worldwide popularity on the folk circuit and beyond include Davy Spillane who toured with the immensely popular Riverdance show, and Liam O'Flynn, who has also successfully integrated the pipes into classical music through his association with composer Shaun Davey.
For an instrument that was confined to Ireland and almost died out in the early decades of the 20th Century, it now has people from vastly different cultures around the world clamouring to learn it and its music. Membership of Na Piobairi Uilleann is international, and local groups in many continents hold gathering and festivals.
The annual Willie Clancy Summer School, held in July in Co.Clare in the west of Ireland, has grown in recent years to be a major international folk event, attracting people from all around the globe including players of many nationalities keen to receive instruction in this fascinating but difficult instrument.
It's not hard to see why these pipes are so widely appealing. They are not as loud and strident as the Scottish marching pipes (which can be quite painful at close quarters), but they have greater richness and strength of tone than the various smallpipes.
The chanter (which plays the tune) is of similar tonal character to the French cornemuse pipes but the closed fingering system gives a greater range of note attack possibilities, and the unique regulators, which allow the addition of harmony playing, set the uilleann pipes in a class of their own.
Whether they're playing blazing reels, jaunty hornpipes or haunting slow airs, the uilleann pipes are surely the most expressive of all bagpipes - perhaps even of all instruments.
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