[2] From 1936 he was active, alongside Betty Sinclair, Winifred Carney, Halley and others, in organising relief aid for the Spanish Republic in civil war with Franco.
[3][4] In the 1938 Northern Ireland general election, he stood for the NILP in Belfast Oldpark,[5] taking second place, with 40.8% of the vote.
[6] In 1945, he was appointed Irish Regional Organiser of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW).
Along with Halley and Harry Diamond he supported the establishment of the Irish Labour Party in Northern Ireland.
[3] MacGougan reminded the crowd that the United Irish leader "Wolfe Tone was an advocate of the new social forces that arose in all parts of the world" and that when they paid tribute to the United Irishmen they were to remember that "they had the closest fraternal links with the democratic forces in other countries".