Bovine epidemic in Northern Ireland area half-ignored, strange to recall (7)
I believe the answer is:
murrain
'bovine epidemic' is the definition.
'murrain' can be an answer for 'epidemic' (thesaurus). I'm not certain of the 'bovine' bit.
'northern ireland area half-ignored strange to recall' is the wordplay.
'northern ireland' becomes 'ni'.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'half-ignored' becomes 'r' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'strange' becomes 'rum' (I've seen this before).
'to recall' is a reversal indicator (I've seen 'recalled' mean this).
'ni'+'a'+'r'+'rum'='niarrum'
'niarrum' in reverse letter order is 'MURRAIN'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for murrain that I've seen before include "Cattle-plague" , "Cattle plague" , "Cattle disease" .)