Irish author finding happiness, having Catholic education initially (5)
I believe the answer is:
joyce
'irish author' is the definition.
(novelist James Joyce)
'happiness having catholic education initially' is the wordplay.
'happiness' becomes 'joy' (I've seen this in another clue).
'having' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letters of 'catholic education' is 'ce'.
'joy'+'ce'='JOYCE'
'finding' is the link.
(Other definitions for joyce that I've seen before include "James --, Irish writer" , "lady" , "James . . . . ., great Irish novelist" , "dictator's spokesman" , "James ---, Irish modernist author" .)