Northern Irish artist maintains vehicle with sense of tranquility (7)
I believe the answer is:
nirvana
'sense of tranquility' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
'northern irish artist maintains vehicle' is the wordplay.
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'irish' becomes 'i' (this could be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'maintains' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'vehicle' becomes 'van' (type of vehicle).
'ra' enclosing 'van' is 'rvana'.
'n'+'i'+'rvana'='NIRVANA'
'with' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nirvana that I've seen before include "State of total happiness" , "State of pure happiness" , "Iran van (anag) - blissful state!" , "Buddhist state of bliss; enlightenment" , "Ultimate state in Buddhism" .)