By Paddy Walsh
On the wall of Mac’s Mace on Letterkenny’s High Road the beat goes on.
A beat that echoed through the last six decades and continues to do so in the home town of one of music’s finest exponents.
Last Saturday, a poem written by Paul Maguire and dedicated to the late, great Ted Ponsonby, got its first public airing and now adorns the wall of the well known local eating house.
“’Ted, you give us the songs, and the music true,
A melody that lingers, through all we do
With every chord, with every note,
Your spirit sings, your heart’s afloat,” the poem opens, summing up the musical genius of its subject.
Before reading it out, Donal Kavanagh, a man who knows all about good music, spoke of the legend that passed away on September 13 last year.
“Like everyone that knows anything about music in Donegal, I regard Ted Ponsonby as one of the best musicians I ever saw on stage locally or indeed nationally,” Donal sang the praises.
“The importance of the name Ponsonby in music in this county became clear to me literally 22 hours after I first arrived in Donegal.”
The following night after his arrival on September 3, 1990, where he was being interviewed – successfully! – for a job on Highland Radio, Donal took a stroll through what would become his newly adopted town and passing by McGinley’s Bar on Lower Main Street, he heard this “amazing blues music” emanating from inside the pub.
In he went to investigate to find a band called the King Bees performing among whose members was drummer Don Ponsonsby,
“Very soon I learned that Don had a brother called Ted who played a bit of guitar in the same sense that I eat a bit of food!.
“I saw him first playing Amhran na bhFianna a la Jimi Hendrix on an electric guitar. It remains one of the five most amazing things I’ve seen live anywhere. It was stunning.”
Over the years, Ted was able to master any genre – “the best I’ve seen at it.”
On behalf of poet Paul, Donal apologised – “I know you’re watching Ted” – that he, Donal, had been asked to read the tribute as a member of the Letterkenny Ukulele Orchestra!
On the poem itself, Donal declared: “What I love about this is that it’s written in the present tense and so it should be because we’re not only marking a life and a musical legacy which is absolutely amazing but also celebrating the fact that the music and the memories are with us and as long as we have that music we have Ted.”
And where better to locate the lines but in Mac’s Mace where the late musician was a regular customer.
Donal then recited the poem watched by Ted’s widow, Marylin, his brother, Don, and the man behind it all, Paul Maguire, along with an assortment of friends and fans of the popular musician.
A permanent appreciation to musical greatness and the character that brought it to life.
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