Wash one's hands of One Direction in county up north (6)
I believe the answer is:
disown
'wash one's hands of one direction' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'in county up north' is the wordplay.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'county' becomes 'down' (County Down in Northern Ireland).
'up north' becomes 'is' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'down' enclosing 'is' is 'DISOWN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for disown that I've seen before include "Refuse to have anything to do with" , "Disclaim or deny" , "Disinherit or renounce" , "Refuse to be associated with (a person)" , "Refuse to be associated with (something/someone)" .)