Soft material refers to north Dublin suburb, they say (6)
I believe the answer is:
merino
'say' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot see how they can define each other.
I cannot understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for merino that I've seen before include "The sheep provides fine wool" , "Fine-wool sheep" , "Fine soft woolen yarn" , "Breed of sheep with fine wool" , "Sheep from Spain with a heavy quality fleece" .)