As for practice, well, you gotta be able to play it slow before you can play it fast. Concentrate on the rythem and timing, and break the piece down into smaller, more manageable chunks that you can play cleanly. Then string them together, once again cleanly, 'til you can play the whole piece from memory. Then work on speed.
As far as reading music, well, I've been playing guitar off and on for 30 years, and I STILL can't read music...hell, I can't even read tablature half the time hehe. Years ago I took classical guitar lessons, and I found trying to play from sheet music difficult and tedious...I play by ear, and envy anyone who can look a piece of music on paper and then play it.
As hard as the bagpipes are, be glad you're not trying to learn the Uillean pipes...people who play them say not to even try 'til you can play 50 songs well on the tin whistle while flapping your left arm hehehe. (Uillean is Irish for "elbow", the Uillean pipes are played by squeezing a bag with your left arm; you don't blow into them like the Highland War Pipes...what most people recognize as the bagpipes). I've also heard it described as trying to make love to an octopus hehehe. The Uillean pipes are pretty much confined to Irish music at this point, although I think they originated somewhere else in Europe quite a long time ago.
I find the Uillean pipes a more expressive instrument personally, although I certainly enjoy the Highland pipes. I'm way too poor to afford a set of Uillean pipes, as a "practice" grade set can easily top $1000. Not to mention they're notoriously hard to tune in humid weather...which is pretty much all we get around here in No. VA in the summer...a double whammy.
Anyone who's seen Braveheart has heard the Uillean pipes; most of the solo piping bits in that movie were done on the Uillean pipes.
I hired a local piper named Keiran O'Hare to play at my father's wake a few years ago...I'll tell you, there weren't many dry eyes in the house when he got cranked up.