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Produced a lot but professional life cut short for top Irish academic in the end (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

prolific

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'produced a lot' is the definition.
The answer and definition are different parts of speech. However, adjectives and past participle verbs can occasionally mean the same thing.

'professional life cut short for top irish academic in the end' is the wordplay.
'professional' becomes 'pro' (abbreviation).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'for' says to put letters next to each other.
'top' indicates taking the first letters.
'in the end' says to take the final letters.
The first letter of 'irish' is 'i'.
The last letter of 'academic' is 'c'.
'life' with its final letter taken away is 'lif'.
'pro'+'lif'+'i'+'c'='PROLIFIC'

'but' acts as a link.

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(Other definitions for prolific that I've seen before include "Producing fruit in abundance" , "Abundant in growth" , "Abounding" , "Rich" , "Abundant in fruit etc" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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