Dublin event honors Josef Veselsky's legacy in European table tennis

Josef Veselsky’s place in the sport was measured in institutions as much as in results, and Dublin’s commemorative evening made that clear. Held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, on 27 May 2026 and organised by Table Tennis Ireland, the event gathered family members, dignitaries and figures from the international table tennis community to honor a man whose influence stretched from wartime Europe to modern Irish clubs.

ETTU president Pedro Moura attended the celebration, titled “The Life and Times of Josef Veselsky: A Celebration,” and presented the ETTU Badge of Honour to Veselsky’s family posthumously. Moura said it was “a privilege” to present the award and said the evening reflected the “respect and affection” Veselsky earned in the table tennis community. That recognition fit a life in which the off-table work mattered as much as any title.

Born in Trnava in 1918, when the city was part of then-Czechoslovakia, Veselsky survived a century that repeatedly tested him. His parents and elder brother were killed in Auschwitz, while he joined the Resistance in the Carpathian Mountains and later received the Order of the Slovak National Uprising for that wartime role. After the Prague coup of 1948, he left for Ireland in 1949 with his wife Katarina and built a successful jewellery business, but he stayed rooted in table tennis, serving as national team captain for both Czechoslovakia and Ireland.

His reach inside the sport was especially durable in Ireland. Veselsky became a familiar presence in clubs across Dublin and Wicklow, was appointed Honorary Life President of the Irish Table Tennis Association, and co-founded the Swaythling Club International, one of the game’s best-known historical bodies. Swaythling Club International later noted that he was the only living member of the committee that formed the club in 1967, a direct link to a formative chapter in the sport’s history.

Trinity College Dublin also marked that blend of scholarship, service and longevity. In 2010, Veselsky became the college’s oldest student after taking extra-mural classes, and in 2016 Trinity awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree, describing him as a “veteran and faithful citizen” of his native and adopted countries. In 2025, he was officially recognised as Ireland’s oldest man at 107, and after his death on 3 January 2026, the tributes only sharpened the sense that European table tennis still rests on the work of individual builders like Veselsky.