Kildare GAA: Wrapped in green and gold, Mr Ballyteague, John Ivers

Many men and women across Ireland are inextricably linked with their GAA club and few, if any, more so than Ballyteague’s John Ivers. Former club treasurer Willie Aungier once announced at a club Annual General Meeting that “two great things happened in 1951, the club was reformed and John Ivers was born.” Indeed the two are cosmically linked between their respective birth and reformation in the same year.
Born and raised at the foot of the Hill of Allen Tower, John first gained interest in the GAA from the great Offaly, Down and Kerry teams of the 50s and 60s. John hailed the likes of Paddy McCormack, Greg Hughes, the McCartans of Down and as he put it “our own Mick O’Dwyer.”
While also mentioning the great Kildare men of that time that included Mick Carolan, Danny Flood and Pa Connolly. His growing interest in Gaelic Games would blossom into a lifelong association with the game.
“I cycled to Newbridge to see Ballyteague vs Carbury (1961),” John recalled. “They were winning by two points, 1-3 to 0-4, with a few minutes to go and Carbury got a late goal. Beaten 1-4 to 1-3, something like last Sunday,” he joked, in reference to the recent wind-swept 2024 Intermediate county final.
“I left my bike in the Garda barracks and when I came back it was flat, so I had to walk home wheeling it along.”
The young John Ivers was also present a year later when Ballyteague won the ‘62 Junior ‘B’ Championship. He cycled down to the bonfire that was held in celebration after the team was brought through the village in the back of a turf lorry.
Aged just 14, John’s interest in the committee side of Ballyteague had already started and in 1965 he attended his first AGM.
“I remember cycling down to the meeting, it was held in the back kitchen of one of the members’ houses. It was a small crowd, but I have never missed an AGM since. 2023 was my 58th consecutive AGM,” John explained.
“That same year, the Allen parish school team got to the final and my partner in midfield was Harry Doyle, Johnny’s father. Monasterevan hammered us, we only got one score and I had the bragging rights of getting that one score,” he joked.
The ambitious youth wasn’t shying away from the field either and preferred wing-back and the number seven jersey during his time in green and gold.
“I remember my first game for Ballyteague with the Juniors over in Prosperous against Caragh. I was a skinny little wing-forward then. I had kicked four points and going for the next ball these two seasoned defenders sandwiched me. I can tell you I had second thoughts about going for the fifth point,” John laughed. “We beat them that day, but it was a tough start.”
John was also the senior panel for the club’s defeat in the 1968 Junior ‘A’ final as they came up short 0-14 to 1-8 against Ardclough. A few years later, he would step away from the pitch when he got involved with the County Board after being a Ballyteague club delegate for years prior.
Ballyteague’s golden era was on the horizon and after another Junior ‘A’ final defeat in 1971, the club put together a legendary run of wins.
The Larks beat Castlemitchell in the following year’s final 2-10 to 0-6 and would go back-to-back to win the club’s first ever Intermediate Football Championship a year later. Ballyteague beat Rathangan 1-12 to 0-5 in the 1973 IFC decider.
“Joe McTeague played full-forward and scored four points while Rathangan were expecting him to be playing in the backs. After being centre-back in ‘72, the lads threw him up full-forward and it worked. My first cousin, Robbie Ivers, scored 1-3 as well,” John recalled.
In the middle of Ballyteague’s brilliant run, John was also a selector with the Kildare minor panel in ‘73 that won the county’s first ever Leinster Minor Football Championship. The Lilywhites reached that year’s All-Ireland final too, losing out to Tyrone.
Most incredible of all after The Larks’ brilliant run was its continuation at Senior Championship level. Ballyteague beat Round Towers, Clane and St Wolstan’s (in a three-match saga) to reach the 1974 Senior Football Championship final, just two years after playing at Junior level.
“Those three tough games didn’t help us coming up against Carbury then. The county final was the only match we lost in those three years. We even missed a penalty in the second half, (Ollie) Crinnigan saved it,” John recalled.
Ballyteague were beaten 2-9 to 0-5 by Carbury and despite the conclusion of an all-time run for a Kildare club, the club’s adventures were far from over as they ended up in the 1974 All-Ireland seven-a-side series.
John explained, “Carbury were supposed to represent Kildare as Senior Champions, but they weren’t able to make it so the County Board asked me if I could get The Larks to go. On short notice, and with no mobile phones or barely even landlines, I hopped in the car and gathered up nine lads on Wednesday or Thursday. The match was Saturday in Dublin.
“I booked a mini-bus for us, but the morning of the game your man said he couldn’t go. ‘Drive it up yourself John’ he says to me. So, I got the keys and I started off to go around and get the lads. Most of them were up and ready, but there were a couple of them that must have hit their snooze button on a Saturday morning,” he laughed.
The Ballyteague side that were pulled together just a couple of days before the tournament, held in Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, were tasked with facing the Donegal champions, St Joseph’s, who would win six of the 10 Donegal Senior titles in the 1970s.
“They were led by Brian McEniff and they were a very seasoned seven-a-side team. We were only starting off and needless to say our interest in the competition didn’t last too long,” John smirked.
“I had arranged a meal for us back at the restaurant at Newlands Cross, which is now Joel’s. We went in there and it was £50 for the 10 of us. A meal plus an apple tart that mysteriously appeared in the minibus on the way home. I got them all home safely anyways, but that’ll tell you the duties of a club official at that time. I turned out to be the driver, kitman and selected the team of seven with the players' help.”
John’s adventures with Ballyteague began in the mid-60s when he was elected assistant secretary and ran until 2014 when his involvement became more limited after he suffered a stroke. However, John has remained an ever-present at Ballyteague and Kildare outings and is appreciative to those who have helped him continue his involvement.
“It curtailed me a bit, but only a bit thanks to great GAA men like Henry Farrell, who brought me to all the Kildare matches home and away. From Donegal to Kerry and many places in between. We did a few overnights too, so he has looked after me very well,” John said.
“Then you have Ger Melia, who took me to all the club matches and events. I am so grateful to those two men that I got to go to all those games.”
John remains a brilliant presence in Kildare GAA and a perennial one in Ballyteague. His writing alongside club members pieced together the history of the club in 1984 and again in 2009 for an updated version of their book.
The latter of which was launched by the late Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, who John later became friends with.

Whether on the page or on the sideline, John will always remain within the fabric of Ballyteague and Kildare.