Done in 30 minutes. Puzzle is of average difficulty. I got toehold with 13ac. I finished the lower half of the grid first. The very last ones were in the top left corner: 1ac, 1dn and (surprisingly) 3dn.
Across
1 ARMFUL – (-h)armful
4 AT A PINCH – a (tap) inch
10 ESCHEAT – E S, cheat
12 IRIS – Iris(-h)
13 ST. MICHAELS – anag. of ‘alchemists’
15 EXITED – ex(-c)ited
16 ESPOUSE – E, spouse
20 STRINGS – two def.
21 NEOCON – neo(anag. of ‘one’), con – I solved this from wordplay. Didn’t know of this term in U.S. politics.
24 ANNO DOMINI – a,d (initial letters of ‘any dithering’ which in caps expands to Anno Domini (in the year of Our Lord). It also means ‘old age’
26 ACME – anag. of ‘came’
28 ENTRAIN – anag. of ‘net’, rain
29 PARLOUR – pa,r,lour – We know ‘lower’ = scowl. Until today I did not know of the variant ‘lour’
30 PEDESTAL – cryptic def.
31 BUSHEL – Bush, E, L (As if there are no Presidents other than Bush!)
Down
1 ALEWIVES – i’ve in anag. of Wales, ‘resort’ being the anagrind.
3 USED – hidden in ‘FamoUS EDitor’ The def. for the word required precedes the hidden indicator ‘in composition’
5 TASTIEST – t(asti)est
6 PEASHOOTER – P.E.,a, shooter
7 NIOBE – A biblical character familiar to crossword solvers. I don’t know of Ulster honour.
8 HONEST – ones in ht (middle of ‘eigHTies’)
9 STATE – every odd letter in SeTbAtTlE
14 BEHIND BARS – two def – Solvers may be pardoned if they first toyed with ‘cellar room’ or similar terms before hitting upon the right answer
17 SACKCLOTH – sack, cloth – term from the phrase ‘sackcloth and ashes’
18 EGOMANIA – anag. of ‘I manage’ goes around O (love), ‘doctor’ being the anagrind
22 MAKE-UP – two def. -When two people make up after a quarrel, they ‘shake hands’
27 FRAU – initial letters of ‘Feel Regret After Upset’; ‘foreign’ because it’s a German term
Ulster honour is NI(Northern Ireland) and OBE
JamesM
Thanks. I was looking for a single term for “Ulster’s prestigious honour”! I do know of the use of apostrophe/possessive in crossword clues but here I think it’s misleading. Any opinions?
“Ulster’s” can also mean “Ulster has” – a common setter’s trick – so this is perfectly sound (except that strictly speaking “Ulster” is not the same as “Northern Ireland”).