Communications taking long time after disorder (8)
I believe the answer is:
messages
'communications' is the definition.
(message is a kind of communication)
'long time after disorder' is the wordplay.
'long time' becomes 'ages' (I've seen this before).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'disorder' becomes 'mess' (mess is a kind of disorder**).
'ages' after 'mess' is 'MESSAGES'.
'taking' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for messages that I've seen before include "Communications, written, spoken or signaled" , "Pieces of information carried from one person to another" , "Notes" , "Brief communications" , "Communications, written, spoken or signalled" .)