Finish in French in front of Irish politicians (3,2)
I believe the answer is:
end up
'finish' is the definition.
(ending up is a kind of finishing)
'in french in front of irish politicians' is the wordplay.
'in french' becomes 'en' ('en' can be French for 'in' e.g. en France).
'in front of' says to put letters next to each other.
'irish politicians' becomes 'dup' (Democratic Unionist Party).
'en'+'dup'='END UP'
(Other definitions for end up that I've seen before include "Turn out" , "on your head, maybe" , "Eventually become" , "Eventually find oneself" , "standing on one's head" .)