Artist's small lair in Ireland (8)
I believe the answer is:
rossetti
'artist's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'small lair in ireland' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'lair' becomes 'sett' (I've seen this before).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'ireland' becomes 'roi' (Republic of Ireland).
's'+'sett'='ssett'
'ssett' inserted inside 'roi' is 'ROSSETTI'.
(Other definitions for rossetti that I've seen before include "Dante Gabriel --, English poet/painter" , "She wroteBleak Midwinter" , "Artist" , "Christina -, nineteenth century century English poet" , "English Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter, d. 1882" .)