Mournful type of European starting to play Gaelic (7)

I believe the answer is:

elegiac

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'mournful' is the definition.
(synonym)

'european starting to play gaelic' is the wordplay.
'starting' says to take the initial letters.
'to play' indicates an anagram.
The first letter of 'european' is 'e'.
'gaelic' anagrammed gives 'legiac'.
'e'+'legiac'='ELEGIAC'

'type of' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for elegiac that I've seen before include "Mournful or sad as poem may be" , "Plaintive" , "Mournful, lamenting" , "Expressing poetic sorrow for something past" , "Poetic, mournful" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times and the Irish Times (Crosaire).

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