bally
»I call the whole thing bally foolishness.» (Three Men In A Boat 14. 7.)
A comparatively recent coinage, it is said, of The Sporting Times from the Irish bally-hooly.
The word is used in the same manner as blooming and bloody, i. e. as a meaningless intensive expression. Bloody is an adj. used on every possible occasion by Eng. workmen, but without meaning. Schoolboys and grown-up persons of the better classes use bally.