April Fools' Day 2016 'Paddy Jihadi' Joke From Kildare Now Is Truly, Truly Tasteless

'Paddy Jihadi'
|

April Fools' Day is the one day of the year we can all stretch the truth and get away with it.

It's a time for good-natured japes and outlandish stories in such quantities you can't trust anything you read.

But it is not a time to claim a man called 'Paddy Jihadi' has annexed a small part of Ireland, renamed it 'Hill of Allah' and raised an Islamic State flag atop an old stone tower.

Because, y'know, terrorism isn't a laughing matter.

Despite the fundamental rules governing the crossover of humour and extremism, this appeared on a Irish news website on Friday morning...

Open Image Modal
Kildare Now

It even had a rather dubious mockup of the 'situation'.

Open Image Modal
Kildare Now

The story reads...

"Irish security forces have placed a ring of steel around the Allen area and road diversions are in place until further notice after an anonymous phone call by a male calling himself Paddy Jihaddy said he had rigged the area with explosives and that he was renaming the the locality the Hill of Allah.

"Local residents have reported hearing loud explosions recently but thought they were the normal quarrying excavations by Roadstone. A spokesperson for the Defence Forces has issued a statement saying that they hope to have the situation resolved by 12 noon when normal life can resume once more."

Erm...