Secret organisation; to mother, a bit of a fiasco? (5)
I believe the answer is:
mafia
'bit of a fiasco?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'secret organisation to mother a' is the wordplay.
'secret organisation' becomes 'fi' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'mother' becomes 'ma' (Ma is another word for mother or mum).
'fi' put after 'ma' is 'mafi'.
'mafi'+'a'='MAFIA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mafia that I've seen before include "Our family" , "Sicilian criminal body" , "Sicilian secret society" , "organised criminals" , "International crime organisation originating in Sicily" .)