In the summer of 1797, the authorities issued a warrant for Ivers on the capital charge of administering the test, or membership pledge, of the Society of United Irishmen.
[1] Having despaired of either the Crown in London or the Ascendancy parliament in Dublin conceding reform, and in the hope of French assistance, Ivers was recruiting for a republican insurrection.
[3] While two members of the Directory were executed, Ivers was held in Kilmainham Gaol until 1799 when he was convicted of treason and sentenced to deportation.
In August, he was transported on the Minerva to penal colony of New South Wales, landing in Sydney in January 1800, with his occupation listed as "weaver".
[7] He was not among the United Irish convicts granted pardons in the wake of the Rum Rebellion of 1808, a coup d'état staged by the New South Wales Corps that deposed Governor William Bligh.