Cruel to send up Northern Irish person (7)
I believe the answer is:
inhuman
'cruel' is the definition.
(inhuman can mean cruel or inhumane)
'send up northern irish person' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'northern' could be 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland) and 'n' is found within the answer.
'person' could be 'human' (synonyms) and 'human' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'i' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inhuman that I've seen before include "Beastly" , "Without compunction" , "Animal" , "Savage, brutal" , "Cruel, barbaric" .)