Mother losing book in Dublin, broken and tearful (7)
I believe the answer is:
maudlin
'tearful' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'mother losing book in dublin broken' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'mother' could be 'ma' (Ma is another word for mother or mum) and 'ma' is found in the answer.
'in' is within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for maudlin that I've seen before include "lovey-dovey" , "Foolishly tearful" , "Weakly sentimental" , "Soppy, lachrymose" , "Foolishly sentimental, mushy" .)