Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Irish) an urban nickname for what is seen as a typical rural town.

1942		Munster Exp. 11 Oct. 2/5: Several comedy items were broadcast with Jimmie O’Dea leading the fun-makers in the village of ‘Ballygobackward.’ The sketches were brilliantly written by Harry O'Donovan.
1952		Irish Press 25 Dec. 3/5: As station-master of the Ballygobackwards Railway Company our ace comedian showed that he can coax tears as well as laughter from his audience.
1960		Irish Examiner 8 Nov. 9/8: [The role of] Ballygobackwards Station Master is in fact Jimmy [O’Dea]’s Hamlet, zenith of every comedian’s ambition.
1970		P. Riddell Fire Over Ulster 112: One Division being ‘tickled to death’ to have come all the way from the Middle West of America to arrive at Ballygobackwards.
1974		Dáil Éireann debates Vol. 274 11 July 🌐 Ballygobackwards, that village immortalised by the late Jimmy O’Dea.
1989		W.J. Abraham Logic of Evangelism 67: Discerning the coming of the rule of God in the events of Belfast or Beirut or Birmingham or Berlin or Boston or Ballygobackwards is precarious in the extreme.
1994		P. O’Sullivan Creative Migrant 80: A hiker, pack on back, is tramping along an Irish road. He meets an old Irish couple. Hiker: How many miles is it to Ballygobackwards?
2007		Coughlan & Hughes Irish Lang. and Culture 99: Whether you’re nosing around your neck of the woods (your neighbourhood) in Ireland or venturing off in search of Ballygobackwards (any rural place).
2014		Sun. Indep. (Dublin) 20 July 106: Not to mention spending holidays to think about someone else’s needs in a caravan in Ballygobackwards, rather than your own.