Knocked around Northern Ireland and drove off (8)
I believe the answer is:
banished
'drove off' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with social activities as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'knocked around northern ireland' is the wordplay.
'knocked' becomes 'bashed' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'northern ireland' becomes 'NI' (abbreviation).
'bashed' enclosing 'ni' is 'BANISHED'.
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for banished that I've seen before include "Condemned to exile" , "excluded?" , "Sent into exile" , "Exiled" .)