Irish love to hold wake, clutching Bible even (10)
I believe the answer is:
mavourneen
'irish love' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'hold wake clutching bible even' is the wordplay.
'hold wake' becomes 'mourn' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'clutching' indicates putting letters inside.
'bible' becomes 'av'.
'even' becomes 'een' ('e'en' can be a synonym of 'even').
'mourn' going around 'av' is 'mavourn'.
'mavourn'+'een'='MAVOURNEEN'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for mavourneen that I've seen is " The Irish love".)