After midnight heard it shone (9)

I believe the answer is:

glistened

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'shone' is the definition.
('glisten' can be a synonym of 'shine')

'after midnight heard' is the wordplay.
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'midnight' becomes 'g' (the middle letter in 'night').
'heard' becomes 'listened' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'g' put next to 'listened' is 'GLISTENED'.

'it' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Irish Independent.

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