N Ireland originally let in no goals? (3)
I believe the answer is:
nil
'no goals?' is the definition.
(nil means a score of zero in football)
'n ireland originally let' is the wordplay.
'n ireland' becomes 'NI' (Northern Ireland).
'originally' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'let' is 'l'.
'ni'+'l'='NIL'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for nil that I've seen before include "Nothing - in Latin" , "Nothing, no score" , "Zero, zilch" , "Lacking value" , "Nothing, zilch" .)