They should be allowed to be themselves, forgiving people say (7)
I believe the answer is:
bygones
'they' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'allowed to be themselves forgiving people say' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'to be' could be 'go' (going is a kind of being) and 'go' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'should be' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bygones that I've seen before include "Let ....... be .......; don't hold grudge" , "Things belonging to the past" , "Let - be - means to forget past differences" , "past events" , "Let these be these to forgive and forget" .)