Josef Veselsky dies, aged 107 - Holocaust survivor, table-tennis champ and League of Ireland devotee

For those of us who knew him though, it’s the big smile that will probably stick the most in our minds.

Mon, 05 Jan, 2026 - 16:23

Emmet Ryan

The Austro-Hungarian Empire still existed when Joe Veselsky was born. Granted it was 1918 and only weeks away from collapsing but that’s the level of history Joe, as he was known to everyone, lived through.

Since the announcement of his passing at 107 years of age, much has been said about the life he led. A survivor of the Holocaust and the last survivor of the resistance movement in Slovakia, Trinity’s oldest graduate, and a man who came to Ireland almost by accident.

Just over a year ago, I was just trying to get people to sing him happy birthday. UCD, a club to which he dedicated decades of his lengthy life, were playing Longford Town at home a couple of days before he turned 106. In the sixth minute of that game, fans of the Students and Longford alike, stood up in the UCD Bowl to sing him a happy birthday.

Veselky had stopped being able to attend games a few years prior but the impact he had on the club will last forever. Of course, his first involvement with the league wasn’t at Belfield. Veselky served as a director of Shamrock Rovers for several years before making the switch.

Indeed, his first sporting link with Ireland was in table tennis. Having been active internationally with Czechoslovakia, he quickly played a major role in the sport here. He was honoured at both Irish and European levels for his contribution to the sport.

It’s through UCD, originally at the old Belfield Park, that I got to know Joe over the past 30 years. We ended up on a couple of committees together and he was always a man for a story.

The one that stands out involves Ferenc Puskas. On a trip to Hungary with several players, Joe was seated next to him. One of the players, who had scored a hat-trick a week or so before the trip, asked Joe to introduce him to Puskas so he could shake his hand. He did but that’s where it gets interesting.

Puskas asked him: “Who was that?” Joe: “Ah he scored a hat-trick but not against a good team.” Puskas: “Joe, a hat-trick is a hat-trick.” The smile was absolutely infectious. Everywhere he went, it was so big. That takes some doing after suffering through decades of watching UCD football but he clearly loved it as he did life.

Veselsky fled his homeland in the late 1940s. Having spent the war with the resistance in the Carpathians, he found out his parents and older brother had been murdered in Auschwitz. As the Soviets marched across Eastern Europe, he and his wife Katarina fled first to Switzerland.

The plan was to go to Australia but that switched to Ireland following the recommendation of a Czech friend in Dublin. For almost 80 years, he made a life here with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Veselsky stayed active at an age when everyone else would have considered winding down. He began taking extra mural courses in Trinity in 2010. Already in his 90s, Veselsky told an interviewer once that he’d have done a full degree if he knew he’d live so long.

The honours were many, from an honorary degree from Trinity in 2016 to being honoured by the Soccer Writers Association of Ireland the same year, through all of his many table tennis accolades.

For those of us who knew him though, it’s the big smile that will probably stick the most in our minds. Even when he was complaining about a poor game of football (it was always the game being bad rather than the performance) he’d be grinning throughout.

Joe packed a lot into 107 years. Even putting together the various strands, resistance fighter to table tennis international through jeweller to UCD fan and administrator, it’s certainly a life less ordinary.

That barely scratches the surface but perhaps that’s a good thing. His memorial on Wednesday will feature people who knew him across the many phases of his life, no doubt sharing stories that many haven’t heard yet.

Joe Veselsky lived a long time, he did a lot, and he smiled so much you couldn’t help but reciprocate. He put in an extraordinary innings.