Kill, playing hit at place in Northern Ireland (6,4)

'kill' is the definition.
(I know that strike down is a more specific form of kill)

'playing hit at place in northern ireland' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'hit' could be 'strike' (synonyms) and 'strike' is found within the answer.
'northern' could be 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland) and 'n' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dow' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?