An Irishman and a bird, for example (7)
I believe the answer is:
pattern
'example' is the definition.
(I know this)
'an irishman and a bird' is the wordplay.
'an irishman' becomes 'pat'.
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a bird' becomes 'tern' (tern is a kind of bird).
'pat'+'tern'='PATTERN'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for pattern that I've seen before include "Sewing plan" , "Design for copying" , "Example; decorate" , "Model to imitate" , "Repeated decorative design" .)