After the death of Phyllis Furness on 12 Aug 2024 Ireland had no 109+, and now it has one again

With the death of Julia Robinson, is Joe Veselsky born 20 Oct 1918 the new top 10?

Posted by: @ale76

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2. Agnes Corish (Wexford) (b. 27 May 1916), 108 y.o.

Passed away yesterday aged 108 yrs 245 days -

https://rip.ie/death-notice/agnes-corish-wexford-wexford-town-582257

Top 10 Oldest Living People in Ireland (as of 22nd January 2025)
Today's update (RIP Ms. Corish)

1. Ruby Druce (Letterkenny, Donegal) (b. 31 December 1915), 109 y.o. Doyenne of Ireland
2. Sarah Coyle (Dublin) (b. 24 July 1916), 108 y.o.
3. Eileen Hynes (Offaly) (b. 15 December 1916), 108 y.o.
4. Sr. Patricia O'Neill (Limerick) (b. 11 November 1917), 107 y.o.
5. Sr. Colette Hickey (Cork) (b. 31 January 1918), 106 y.o.
6. Bridget Skehan (Limerick) (b. 12 March 1918), 106 y.o.
7. Sarah Doherty (Donegal) (b. 10 July 1918), 106 y.o.
8. Tessie Kelleher (Cork) (b. 13 August 1918), 106 y.o.
9. Joe Veselsky (Dublin) (b. 20 October 1918 in SVK), 106 y.o. Doyen of Ireland
10. Burga Anonymous (b. 5 December 1918), 106 y.o.

New article about Mr. Veselsky, Doyen of Ireland: https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/01/26/holocaust-survivor-joe-veselsky-irelands-oldest-man-prepares-for-anniversary-of-liberation/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIJpMlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRt6GTIB13xWKzMxCwgTc9AThVS_4EKL7jL3YOzPSyYC22ooJ_UypZrp5A_aem_6ENkzfuQIQI-OeZxcS88zg

Joe Veselsky (106) made his mark on Ireland after his parents and brother died in Auschwitz

Joe Veselsky (106) at St John's House nursing home in Ballsbridge.

Joe Veselsky was born in 1918 in an empire that no longer exists and will live out his days in a country that did not exist when he was born.

His father, Maximilian Veselsky, was Slovakian and his mother Bertha was the daughter of a famous Hungarian rabbi. They did not speak each other’s language, but they had an arranged marriage in the Jewish faith.

His father fought with the Austro-Hungarian empire in the first World War and was invalided out in 1917. Joe was born on October 17th, 1918, in the town of Trnava, Slovakia, the same month that the empire broke up and the republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed.

In 1939 Adolf Hitler’s Germany annexed Czechoslovakia and a puppet Nazi Slovak republic was set up. The nightmare for the Veselsky family and for all Czechoslovakian Jews began.

His parents and only sibling, Hugo, and Hugo’s wife, perished in Auschwitz. The 80th anniversary of his liberation happens on Monday.

He saw his parents being pushed into a cattle truck. “My mother’s very last word was [change your religion],” Joe Veselsky said in a Newstalk documentary in 2020.

In Ireland, an event to mark International Holocaust Memorial Day will take place on Sunday at Dublin’s Mansion House.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, meanwhile will on Monday attend a memorial at Auschwitz itself.

Mr Veselsky survived with the help of friends. He spent the last two years of the war in the Carpathian mountains fighting with the Slovak resistance against the Nazis.

Even after the war his ordeal wasn’t over. He was targeted by the communists and fled Czechoslovakia for Ireland in 1948.

He made quite a mark in his adopted country. He founded a successful jewellery business in Dublin and became one the presidents of the Irish Table Tennis Association.

In 2016 he was conferred with an honorary degree at Trinity College Dublin, having in 2010, at the age of 93, resumed his education, which had been cut short by the second World War.

In October last year, following the death of Martin McEvilly at the age of 108, Mr Veselsky became the oldest man in Ireland.

His life was celebrated with a reception in the Slovakian embassy in October.

In his room at St John’s House nursing home in Ballsbridge, there are pictures of him with President Michael D Higgins, a man he greatly admires, according to Joe’s son Peter Veselsky.

Many in the Jewish community in Ireland say President Higgins should stay away from Sunday’s memorial event run by the Holocaust Education Trust in the Mansion House because of his criticisms of Israel.

However, Peter Veselsky said his father, when he was still able to speak last year, expressed a view that the Israeli government had “gone too far in Gaza”.

“He was shocked by the October 7th attacks, but he thought the response was even worse,” Mr Veselsky said. “That’s what he said to me and nobody could accuse him of being anti-Semitic.”

As of the 11 Oct 2024 list there were only 3 108+ on the list
Agnes joined the list on 6 Sept 2022 and Wexford is now left without a representative

Posted by: @ale76

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7. Sarah Doherty (Donegal) (b. 10 July 1918), 106 y.o. 

Died on Monday at 106y 222d

https://highlandradio.com/obituaries_test/sarah-doherty-nee-mac-fadden-kinnelargey-downings/

Top 10 Oldest Living People in Ireland (as of 19th February 2025)
Today's update (Sister Colette turned 107 https://www.waterford-news.ie/news/waterford-nun-sr-colette-celebrates-her-107th-birthday-in-cork_arid-46720.html ; RIP Ms. Doherty)

1. Ruby Druce (Letterkenny, Donegal) (b. 31 December 1915), 109 y.o. Doyenne of Ireland
2. Sarah Coyle (Dublin) (b. 24 July 1916), 108 y.o.
3. Eileen Hynes (Offaly) (b. 15 December 1916), 108 y.o.
4. Sr. Patricia O'Neill (Limerick) (b. 11 November 1917), 107 y.o.
5. Sr. Colette Hickey (Cork) (b. 31 January 1918), 107 y.o.
6. Bridget Skehan (Limerick) (b. 12 March 1918), 106 y.o.
7. Tessie Kelleher (Cork) (b. 13 August 1918), 106 y.o.
8. Joe Veselsky (Dublin) (b. 20 October 1918 in SVK), 106 y.o. Doyen of Ireland
9. Burga Anonymous (b. 5 December 1918), 106 y.o.
10. Bridget Colleary (Sligo) (b. 29 December 1918), 106 y.o.

Only one Irish person born before the Easter Rising still alive!