Sometimes Freda landed her friends in embarrassing situations. Twice in Dublin I found myself taken in by her. One Saturday afternoon as we walked up towards Grafton Street along by the front wall of Trinity Freda stepped out in the middle of the tramlines and soon she had blocked all the trams coming from Nelson Pillar. Bells tinkled; people gathered to watch the circus and Freda just dawdled along, seemingly oblivious to all the attention while I tried to fade into the crowd but she called out: 'Look at my friend pretending she doesn't know me.'
Another evening she asked me to walk up to Donnybrook with her and I went with her, not knowing why or where. We arrived at the police station and she went in demanding that I go with her. There she kept asking for her bike but she made no impression on them. They told her that her parents must visit them as soon as possible - and that meant another long journey from Limerick to sort it out.