We held tight entering Northern Ireland capital (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
new delhi
'capital' is the definition.
(New Delhi is an example)
'we held tight entering northern ireland' is the wordplay.
'tight' is an anagram indicator (tight can mean drunk).
'entering' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'northern ireland' becomes 'ni'.
'we'+'held'='weheld'
'weheld' is an anagram of 'ewdelh'.
'ewdelh' put within 'ni' is 'NEW DELHI'.
(Other definitions for new delhi that I've seen before include "Indian capital city" , "Gambling establishments" , "... and India's present capital" , "foreign city" , "End while in India, oddly" .)