A new romance sprouts in rural Ireland (9)
I believe the answer is:
connemara
'sprouts in rural ireland' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'a new romance' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' is found in the answer.
'new' could be 'n' (abbreviation as in New Testament NT) and 'n' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'romance' is 'conemra' which is located in the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for connemara that I've seen before include "No car, amen, in the West" , "Area of County Galway" , "region of Ireland" , "place in Ireland?" , "somewhere in Ireland" .)