Former partner might record half of it up there, quietly, on the outskirts of Thurles to make pieces (8)
I believe the answer is:
excerpts
'up there quietly on the outskirts of thurles to make pieces' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'former partner might record half of it' is the wordplay.
'former partner' becomes 'ex' (an ex-partner).
'might' is an anagram indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'half' indicates taking half.
'of it' becomes 'pts' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'record' with half the letters taken is 'rec'.
'rec' is an anagram of 'cer'.
'ex'+'cer'+'pts'='EXCERPTS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for excerpts that I've seen before include "Extracts" , "Sex crept into parts of book or film" , "Short passages from book" , "Passages from book or music" , "Passages selected from a larger work" .)