Make it less of a challenge for male taken in by woman from the capital in Northern Ireland (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
dumb down
'ireland' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.
'make it less of a challenge for male taken in by woman from the capital in northern' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'make' could be 'do' (doing is a kind of making) and 'do' is present in the answer.
'male' could be 'm' (common abbreviation) and 'm' is located in the answer.
'woman' could be 'w' (abbreviation eg in Woman Police Constable) and 'w' is found within the answer.
'northern' could be 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland) and 'n' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'dub' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dumb down that I've seen before include "Make less intellectual" , "make things easier" , "Lower one's intellectual standards" , "Make less intellectually challenging" , "Reduce intellectual content of" .)