Enter the Haggis is a Canadian Celtic rock band based in Toronto. The band was founded in 1995 by Craig Downie, the only remaining original member in the lineup. The band currently consists of Downie (highland bagpipes, vocals), Brian Buchanan (vocals, fiddle, guitar), Trevor Lewington (vocals, guitar), Mark Abraham (bass), and Bruce McCarthy (drums). Their eighth and latest studio album Penny Black was released in 2014 under the Jubilee Riots name.

History

Craig Downie was born in Scotland and raised in Canada. He started playing bagpipes when he joined a pipe band at 12 years old. After pursuing an acting career in the early 1990s, Downie formed Enter the Haggis in Toronto in 1995 shortly before the band's first performance. The name was chosen as a humorous reference to the 1973 kung-fu film Enter the Dragon.

The band's first release Let the Wind Blow High was released in 1998 on Rel Records. This was followed by Aerials in 2002, which was the first studio release with the lineup consisting of Downie, Buchanan, Lewington, Abraham, and drummer James Campbell. This lineup would remain unchanged until Campbell's departure in 2010.

The Jubilee riots of 1875 were an outbreak of Protestant-Catholic sectarian violence in Toronto. The riots happened during a series of Catholic religious pilgrimages related to the Jubilee year declared by Pope Pius IX.

The first riot occurred on September 22, during a pilgrims' march to the bishop's palace at St. Michael's Cathedral. The parade had been advertised in the Irish Canadian newspaper, which led a group of opponents to petition Mayor Francis Henry Medcalf to have the event banned. It proceeded, however, with a pledge from the Catholic clergy that is would remain "quiet, peaceful, and Christian".Stone throwing between pilgrims and onlookers started at Spadina Avenue and Queen Street and spread to several nearby streets. There were reports of shots being fired on Simcoe Street. The police attempted to separate the pilgrims and their attackers, but were briefly overwhelmed before charging the rioters with batons and seizing several firearms.

Commentary following the riots was divided. Editorials in the Mail criticized those who attacked the pilgrims as having started the riot but questioned the wisdom and tact of the Catholic organizers of the parade for the route chosen and for advertising it in the Irish Canadian. The Globe defended the pilgrims as law-abiding. The Leader suggested that asking members of Catholic societies to line the streets to watch the parade was asking for trouble. The Toronto Orange Lodge demanded that similar future marches be suppressed. A tense public meeting was held where the city fathers implored the Catholics not to march again.