O'Donoghue built up an intelligence network and agents which included his future wife, Josephine Marchment. She was head female clerk at the 6th Division Headquarters at Victoria Barracks, Cork and passed on secret British Army correspondence to him. Florence recruited people to open letters, tap phone lines and intercept telegrams. The Irish Republican Army had 2,000 active members in Cork which were also used for intelligence gathering. By March 1920, after killing a RIC Inspector, Florence was on the run and serving full-time in the Irish Republican Army. In November that year, the Cork Brigade killed six British Army Officers and executed five Cork civilians on suspicion of spying.