Some of the country's finest hacks went to rather extreme lengths yesterday to fool a very suspicious public, with Mooney Goes Wild on Radio One perhaps taking the prize for the most elaborate of practical jokes.

The show's reporter, Terry Flanagan, was heard interviewing protesters outside Phoenix Park who had discovered an evil County Council plan to carve a dual-carriageway through the park to link the M50 and the Luas line.

The chant of the furious campaigners could be heard throughout the interview, punctuated by the occasional supportive beep of a passing car. Photographs of the Saturday protest had mysteriously been released to newspapers on Friday night.

Irish Times columnist Roisin Ingle went out on her own personal limb by declaring herself to be a lesbian. "I've decided I can no longer hide my sexual identity, " she wrote. "Of course, it's going to be disappointing for my boyfriend."

Bertie Ahern was the unfortunate target of The Sun's computer experts.

They stuck his bewildered-looking head on Michael Flatley's body, and declared that he'd be burning up the floor with Anna Bogle, President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin on tonight's Celebrity Jigs and Reels.

According to an adviser to the show, Flora Spoil (check the anagram), "It will be an explosive routine. Bertie and Anna have been telling everyone the president doesn't have rhythm.

But she hit back that Bertie's got two left feet."

RTE Radio One were at it again when it was announced on John Murray's business programme that Croke Park might be re-named Pairc Ui Shainsbury in a multi-million euro sponsorship deal involving the British supermarket giant, Sainsbury's.

There was arguably more alarming news on the front page of the Irish Examiner, where Anthony Cotter announced that tens of thousands of SSIA holders were going to lose a portion of their cash because finance minister Brian Cowen was plotting to save a bit of money. Thirty-thousand account holders were set to have their payments reduced, according to the paper.

Across the water, the British papers had evidently been working overtime on the very important hoax stories.

The Daily Express provided one of the strangest offerings, by filling page three with a picture of workmen steamrollering digestives and custard creams into a dual carriageway. The article revealed that "small amounts of the teatime snack, mixed with more traditional surfacing materials like bitumen, amazingly help to make roads 10% safer and more durable".

The Sun had been tinkering with computer graphics again, this time creating a Jackass penguin jogging on the beach near the Thames. The paper speculated that the bird could create the same furore as the whale that was sighted in London two months ago. Unlikely.

In a small slot on page 12, The Times was talking about 'Chip and Sing' cards. Written by Alexi Harpor (an anagram for April Hoaxer), the article claimed that soon we will all be authorising our payments by singing wellknown tunes such as Jerusalem and My Way . 1 April 2009 is the date for this system to be introduced.

The Mail went for a rather more political story, saying that Tony Blair had undone 270 years of tradition by painting the door of No 10 Downing St a very socialist red. The prime minister was "feeling well and truly at home nine years after claiming the keys" and felt comfortable making such a change, said the paper.