Outlaws holding Irish children (6)
I believe the answer is:
bairns
'children' is the definition.
(I know this)
'outlaws holding irish' is the wordplay.
'outlaws' becomes 'bans' (to outlaw something is to ban it).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'irish' becomes 'IR' (abbreviation).
'bans' placed around 'ir' is 'BAIRNS'.
(Other definitions for bairns that I've seen before include "Scottish wee ones" , "Children, in Scotland" , "Scottish children with brains" .)