Ruined now but, initially, the first three never lost contract in Northern Ireland up there (9)
I believe the answer is:
insolvent
'ruined' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'northern ireland up there' is the wordplay.
'northern ireland' becomes 'NI' (abbreviation).
'up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'there' becomes 'solvent' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'ni' reversed gives 'in'.
'in'+'solvent'='INSOLVENT'
'now but initially the first three never lost contract in' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for insolvent that I've seen before include "In the red" , "Gone bust, without a bean" , "Snivel not, although you are bankrupt!" , "gone to the wall" , "Broke" .)