the Congress would never recover from and the group was defunct by 1936. Gilmore had made a last-ditch effort to save the Congress by travelling to America to seek funds from Irish-American groups but was not successful. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Gilmore and O'Donnell became supporters of the International Brigades. Both men travelled to Spain personally, during which they were involved in a plane crash in which Gilmore's leg was broken. Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 Gilmore wrote an appeal pleading with the IRA to dump arms until the war in Europe was over and denounced them for flirting with fascism by seeking aid from Germany. During the 1960s when the Republican Movement once again moved to the left Gilmore and O'Donnell were once again in demand as speakers and as writers in Republican publications. In 1966, for the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Gilmore released a pamphlet entitled "Labour and the republican movement" in which he espoused the principles of James Connolly. Additionally, Gilmore appealed to young republicans not to repeat the mistake older republicans had made in being too rigid in their views and too short on policy. He died in Howth, County Dublin, aged 87. Personal life In the mid-1930s, Gilmore met Cora Hughes, a graduate of Celtic Studies from University College Dublin who had begun to move in left-wing circles and who had become a housing activist in the city. Cora was the daughter of Frank Hughes, the best man at Éamon de Valera's wedding. De Valera was her godfather and continued to support her throughout her life. Cora's association with leftwing politics and Gilmore caused a deep rift between herself and her deeply religious family. Hughes and Gilmore were eventually engaged to be married when it became apparent that Hughes was suffering from Tuberculous, which Gilmore believed she developed visiting and working in the slums of Dublin. Gilmore believed that Hughes need to immediately depart for a sanatorium in Switzerland but Hughes' family believed she should go to Lourdes to seek a miracle. In desperation, Gilmore arranged a meeting with De Valera to ask him to convince the Hughes family to send her to Switzerland. De Valera reluctantly agreed to Hughes' request and spoke to the family, as well as arranging for Hughes to be issued an emergency passport. However, the outbreak