Originally from Napa, California, Jack Duffy attended his first protest at the age of 14 when he joined his mom at a march during President Trump’s first term.
Now a computer science major at Chapman University, the 21-year-old has become known for playing the bagpipes at recent protests in Portland and Los Angeles.
“The first one I went to and played at was ‘No Kings Day’ in Portland,” Duffy says. “I was living in my car, and I went up there to see what it was like . . . that was my first real protest. We were getting tear-gassed and everything. I was playing, someone gave me goggles and a mask.”
Duffy says he started playing the bagpipes over three years ago when he “randomly got into Irish music in high school.”
“I learned [bagpipes] online which is not what you're supposed to do,” Duffy says. (He tends not to share that with any of the other members on the bagpiping Discord server he belongs to.)