I would like to boast here. My mother, in common with many of her generation, saw life in a world of predatory men as a constant danger for girls. She told me that all women should, at all times, carry a whistle.
So… a few centuries later and there's a huge demo in Dublin. Unlike the normal scruffs who march against injustice, this one was run mainly by civil servants, so naturally there were corporate gifts - they gave out whistles so the marchers could whistle along with "One two three - End Austerity! Three, four five six-y - Shove the IMF up your jacksie!" or whatever we were shouting.
In memory of my mother I put the green whistle and its green string in my bag, and carried it around ever since, along with all the other urgent necessities her upbringing mandated in case one needed to flee from whatever - cash, a passport, a measuring tape (centimetres and inches), a map of the city with main attractions marked (helpful for tourists), and so on.
So I go for my normal morning cycle along the river and decide, since it's a particularly beautiful day, to follow the river out to the strand.
The tide is waaaaay out, and in the far distance are three people, who can distantly be heard shouting. Now, on this beach, when the tide turns it does it with a vengeance, and while (thank heaven) there have been no recent fatalities, there have been emergencies. So I stop and dither, staring out at them.
A woman joins me, and we both stare out, shading our eyes. Then she exclaims, "It's a dog! Look, their dog's over there and it can't see them!"
Dogs, you see, can't see for a long way above the waves if they're swimming or in the sea; it's why emergency services are regularly called out to rescue dogs that have swum out to collect a ball that's flung too far, and are swimming bravely towards what they think is shore but is in fact the next country across the way.
So I remember my mother's thoughts, and fish in my bag and pull out the whistle and start blasting on it, while the unfortunate woman reels back covering her ears. Next thing, the dog suddenly orients, and goes racing towards his people, and the four of them start walking in towards the other end of the strand.
Of course, if I'd ever succeeded in learning how to blast a whistle with two fingers stuck in my mouth - a skill my father tried and failed to teach me - "You have to make your mouth like the inside of a whistle, with your tongue like the pea!" - I wouldn't need mechanical aids. There are some things that should be taught in school, and should be part of the Leaving Cert, A Levels, SATs, etc, and this is definitely one of them.