This Is Guernsey

A BORN and bred Guernseyman is generally referred to as a ‘Donkey’ - but why?.

George Torode

Island writer George Torode said: ‘I’m a donkey and proud of it.

‘I think that part of the success of my donkey books is that as the powers that be try to jam us into being good Europeans, we’re proud to be a donkey first and a European second.’

Mr Torode has written a series of books of anecdotes about the Guernsey way of life.

‘In Donkey’s Years, I think I found the explanation as to why we are called donkeys,’ he said.

‘If a Guernseyman got to the age of 25 and was still single and hadn’t been to London, his friends called him a donkey.

‘Jersey people picked up on this and as Guernsey supporters were leaving Jersey on the ferry, they’d shout out Donkey.

‘Guernsey has frogs, Jersey has frogs and toads so we replied: Crapaud.

‘It’s good-humoured banter between opposing groups of football supporters - much the same as there is between Liverpool and Everton.’

However, he did agree that the Guernseyman’s stubbornness was reflected in the nickname.

In GM Edwards’ Book of Ebenezer Le Page, the Guernseyman goes to Jersey to see the Muratti and has a reception at St Helier, much as Mr Torode described.

Returning on the ferry, he comments: ‘A black man is a black man but a Jerseyman is a Jerseyman’, clearly putting his fellow Channel Islanders somewhere on the evolutionary scale about where you would find slugs and toads.

Marie de Garis

Marie de Garis, who has charted the language and folklore of Guernsey, agreed with Mr Torode that Jersey had toads and therefore its people were crapauds (French for the creature) and donkey was appropriate for the stubbornness of the Guernseyman.As well as the general nickname for islanders - anes (donkeys) Guernsey; crapauds (toads) Jersey; vaques (cows) Alderney; corbins (sea-ravens) Sark - she said that there were specific ones for nine of the island’s parishes.Town, cllichards (spitters, because of their affected way of speaking); St Sampson’s, roines (frogs); Vale, ann’tons (cockchafers); Castel: ane-pur-sangs, (pure-blooded-donkeys); St Saviour’s, fouormilliaons (ants); St Peter’s, etcherbots (beetles); Forest, bourdons (drones); St Martin’s, cravants (ray fish); St Andrew’s, les croinchons (the siftings).

Mrs de Garis said that in St Peter’s and Torteval people were given a nickname that reflected something in their personality.

‘One of my teachers who was tall and angular took very long strides.

She was nicknamed La Perqueresse - most men could measure a perch of land by their stride, so her nickname described the length of her stride.

‘And there was a man in St Peter’s who we called Rule Britannia because as he walked about the lanes, he’d be singing it at the top of his voice.

‘It’s odd that it tends to be mainly men who are given nicknames,’ she said.

But in her book, Folklore of Guernsey, Mrs de Garis does quote a verse about the characters of the island’s women:

The Parish Maidens
The Town girls
Aren’t they handsome!
The girls from St Sampson’s,
Fine to go sandeeling with.
The girls from the Vale,
Always ready to tease.
The girls from the Castel,
Always ready for laughter.
The girls from St Saviour’s,
Are always in a good mood.
The girls from St Peter’s,
Ah, they are always crying.
The girls from Torteval,
Truly, they have horses’ feet.
The girls from the Forest,
My! They are ugly.
The girls from St Martin’s,
Are stupid as rabbits.
The girls from St Andrew’s,
Will always be left on the shelf.

But men’s weaknesses are also related in another poem:
Who Wishes to Find Out?
Who wishes to hear and to find out
How the French love?
They love so frivolously,
For they are such frivolous people,
That, we always hear them say,Ah! Madam, since I have met you,
I dream of naught but you.
Fal-la-la.
Who wishes to hear and to find out
How the English love?They love so stupidly,
For they are such stupid people,
That, we always hear them say,
Sometimes the chase,
Sometimes the newspaper,
Sometimes love.
Fal-la-la.
Who wishes to hear and to find out
How the Guernseymen love?
They love so prudently,
For they are such prudent people,
That, we always hear them say,
Has the maiden any money?
Fal-la-la.