Crossword Genius

Tedious book lying around Irish quarters (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tiresome

'tedious' is the definition.
(I know that tedious can be written as tiresome)

'book lying around irish quarters' is the wordplay.
'book' becomes 'tome' (a tome is a book).
'lying around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'irish' becomes 'IR' (abbreviation).
'quarters' becomes 'es'.
'ir'+'es'='ires'
'tome' going around 'ires' is 'TIRESOME'.

(Other definitions for tiresome that I've seen before include "Aggravating" , "Annoying, being a nuisance" , "Fatiguing; boring" , "'Tedious, irksome (8)'" , "Causing impatience" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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