Crossword Genius

Press covering Northen Ireland discipline (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

punish

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'ireland discipline' is the definition.
'punish' can be an answer for 'discipline' (discipline can mean to punish someone). I'm unsure of the 'ireland' bit.

'press covering northen' is the wordplay.
'press' becomes 'push' (pushing is a kind of pressing).
'covering' is an insertion indicator.
'northen' becomes 'ni' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'push' enclosing 'ni' is 'PUNISH'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for punish that I've seen before include "Cause to suffer for an offence" , "Castigate" , "Like wordplay in speech" , "exact retribution" , "Chastise" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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