Manuscript covers papers lost and found in central Ireland (8)
I believe the answer is:
midlands
'manuscript covers papers lost and found in central ireland' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'manuscript covers papers lost and found in' is the wordplay.
'manuscript' becomes 'ms' ('ms' can be a synonym of 'manuscript').
'covers' indicates putting letters inside.
'papers' becomes 'id' (identification papers).
'lost' becomes 'l' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'found in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'id'+'l'='idl'
'ms' going around 'idl' is 'midls'.
'midls' enclosing 'and' is 'MIDLANDS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for midlands that I've seen before include "Counties in the centre of Ireland" , "Central area" , "SECOND PART OF 17" , "interior" , "SECOND PART OF 20" .)