From left-handed hamburgers to spaghetti harvests, we've all fallen foul of the pranksters on this day dedicated to playing tricks on each other, writes MAL ROGERS.

WE’VE ALL done it, haven’t we. Piled hundreds of old tyres onto the summit of a dormant volcano, set them alight, and ran down the mountain just in time to shout, “April Fool!” as the fleeing villagers pile their belongings onto every available vehicle.

Well, maybe not. But around the world people will be getting in touch with their inner prankster today. Even august bodies and serious commentators find All Fools’ Day irresistible.

In April 1965, Seán Lemass lambasted The Irish Timesfor playing the fool with him. In an editorial headed "Staggering", our paper slammed Mr Lemass's threat to introduce alcohol prohibition, quoting his words: "If I am elected on April 7th, the boozer will have to go abroad for his drink in future. He won't get it here."

On reading the report, the then taoiseach immediately issued a statement: " The Irish Timesseems to have passed into the control of a group of crypto-reds. . . ." and continued to berate the paper in no uncertain terms.

The following day The Irish Timesran his statement beside a photo of a grinning taoiseach holding a pint of plain. An editor's note pointed out the leader had appeared on April 1st.

The world has long enjoyed the comic latitude April Fool’s Day bestows. We’ve had left-handed hamburgers, the spaghetti harvest in Italy, Greenwich Mean Time renamed Guinness Mean Time, and the Alabama legislature changing the value of pi. The Dutch national news station once reported that the government had new technology to detect unlicensed televisions but that wrapping a TV in aluminium foil could prevent its discovery. Sales of foil duly increased.

This licence to dupe everybody one day a year is a widespread, if very odd, sort of celebration. Everyone takes part – even as you read this a Newfoundland lobster fisherman will have already crept up on his workmate and pinched him on the bum; a bomb disposal officer will have burst a balloon in his comrade’s ear just as he was about to snip a crucial tripwire.

Even some of our famous writers have joined in. One of the greatest humourists these islands have ever produced, Flann O’Brien, managed a masterly comic twist even in his death. You’ve guessed it – with supreme theatrical timing he passed away on April Fool’s Day.

Despite Flann’s gallant effort, All Fools’ Day is one of the few annual festivals that has no Irish input. St Patrick’s Day is 99 per cent Irish – one per cent is missing because our patron saint was not actually born in Ireland; Halloween is 100 per cent Celtic; St Valentine’s mortal remains reside in Dublin; Christmas boasts many Celtic traditions (the tree, holly, mistletoe, candles); Easter is about 10 per cent Irish, and if the Celtic bishops had held sway at the Synod of Whitby in AD 664 it would have been 100 per cent Irish; and, of course, St Edeltraud the Bald, who originated the idea for Mothering Sunday, was from Spellickanee in Co Louth.

We can be justly proud of our record in helping the world mark out the tramp of the seasons. The one festival, however, which is a totally Irish-free event is the one we celebrate today, the Festival of Fools.

“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year,” said Mark Twain, but the day’s origins remain unclear. Pope Gregory XIII is often held responsible. When he restructured the calendar in 1582 by papal bull, New Year’s Day was moved. However, die-hard conservatives in France resisted the change and continued to celebrate the New Year from March 25th to April 1st. The more flexible French mocked the rigid revellers by sending them foolish gifts and invitations to non-existent parties.

Possibly April Fool’s Day evolved independently in various parts of the world in celebration of the spring equinox.

Everywhere from Mexico to India outbreaks of idiocy occur in April, often with some religious aspect attached. Norse mythology has its prankster-god Loki, the Romans had their pagan festival of Hilaria.

But of Celtic influence, there seems to be little trace. We must content ourselves with St Patrick’s Day, St Valentine’s, Christmas Day and Halloween. But not Mother’s Day. I made that one up. April Fool.