In Ireland's old April Fools letter prank, what instruction appeared in the letter?

In Ireland's old April Fools letter prank, the letter instructed the recipient to “send the fool further.”

The trick began when someone entrusted the victim with an apparently important letter addressed to a named person. When the victim delivered it, the recipient read the message and directed them to take it to somebody else. The process could continue from person to person, turning the victim's errand into an escalating chain of pointless journeys.

The wording is the joke's essential reveal: the supposed letter of importance identifies its bearer as the fool and tells each reader to pass them onward. It is a close relative of other April Fools traditions built around foolish errands rather than a single dramatic prank.

The custom is also easy to confuse with Scotland's “hunt the gowk,” in which a “gowk,” or cuckoo, is sent on a series of errands. Both traditions exploit an unsuspecting messenger, but the Irish version is specifically associated with the circulating letter and its instruction.