Gloomy lawyer reached Spain long ago (8)

I believe the answer is:

darkages

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'reached spain long ago' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether it can be defined by this definition.

'gloomy lawyer' is the wordplay.
'gloomy' becomes 'dark' (similar in meaning).
'lawyer' becomes 'ages' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dark'+'ages'='DARKAGES'

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I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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