Thursday 18 May: Pele's is definitely longer than Bill Clinton's

09:00 1978 Dutch company Philips patents the compact disc

12:10 They don't come much tougher than this:

The Spanish Civil War veteran and chairman of the Communist Party of Ireland, Michael O'Riordan, has died in Dublin. He was 88.

He was one of only two remaining Irishmen who fought against General Franco's fascist forces and was shot and injured in Spain.

Born in west Cork in 1917, Michael O'Riordan was a member of the Fianna and of the IRA, and joined the Communist Party in 1935.

13:22 Up every tree, no stone unturned, with the best will in the world, top priority, things WILL get better blah hablah blah:

The Taoiseach has told the Dáil that no stone is being left unturned to improve conditions in Accident & Emergency wards.

13:30

Bus Éireann and the gardaí are carrying out separate investigations after a child fell out of the emergency door of a school bus in Co Monaghan earlier this week in a non-emergency situation. That is, until the emergency door created the emergency.

13:41 Seeds of a joke:

(09:04) President McAleese has said she believes 'seeds of hope' have been sown this week to help solve the problem of the undocumented in the US.’

(11:19) The HSE is monitoring the medical condition of the 41 Afghan asylum seekers who are now in the fifth day of their hunger strike at St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

14:09 CALLER: Pele's is definitely longer than Bill Clinton's. (Regarding the book-signing queue at Eason's.)

15:56 TEST FOR BLUETOOTH DEVICES WHEN OFFERING REMOTE SUPPORT: Whistle. If the device whistles back, it supports bluetooth.