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Finbar's father, Ted, began him on the pipes while he was very young. He loved the instrument and spent all his spare time practising and soaking up knowledge from other pipers who would come to the house for sessions with Ted. It was normal for the likes of Leo Rowsome, Seamus Ennis, John Keenan, Felix Doran, Willie Clancy and Tommy Moore to be around to see Ted at their home in Ballyfermot.
By his teens he had won 3 All Ireland Medals The Oireachtas  and many Feisanna - in fact he was the only piper ever to win the All Ireland, the Oirechtas medal and the 4 province titles in the same year.
His father had bought him a Kennedy set in E and eventually he needed a concert set for touring so persuaded a friend who was a teacher in metal work, Brian Howard, to make him a set in stainless steel, which he played along with a Rowsome chanter. The chanter he plays now is an old one given to him by Davey Spillane. 
Finbar popularised the pipes worldwide while on tour with his brother Eddie in the 60's. Many bands followed in their wake, but the duo were awarded best Single of the Year by John Peel in 1972 entirely because of the unique sound the uilleann pipes and whistle made, in the context of what was, at the time, a modern pop sound. 
They received many other accolades because they were the spearhead of  contemporary music of that time. While there was an inevitable progression in Irish music, Finbar and Eddie brought a new Irish hipness to a worldwide audience which would have had NO ear for Irish music otherwise. 
Before Finbar and Eddie, Irish music was for the converted ear. After Finbar and Eddie, it was blended into every other kind of "world" and popular music. It became once again, the music of youth and revolution, as folk had been generations before and also, a means of dealing with political and social problems which the world faced in that, it was a way for 'common folk', to stand together against real world injustices, such as pollution and abuses of government power. 
The illumination they brought to a generation cannot be overstated.Subsequently of course the format was used everywhere from Planxty to River Dance, Braveheart to Hailey Westenra.