break links list into columns – same category

I’d like to break up one of my link categories into a few columns (2 or 3) I understand that I can do this with divs floated side by side.. but how do I use PHP to split up the list of links from the same category?

I have 36 links… I’d like to have half on one side, half on the other. My first thought was to use the ‘limit’ parameter in get_links, but there’s nothing to specify the start for the second column (does that makes sense?) So if I use:

<?php get_links('1','<li>','</li>','','','name','','18'); ?>

That will display the first 18 links… but how do I get it to display the NEXT 18 links? Or even use PHP to display this dynamically? I saw someone (supposedly) had an example of this before, but the link is now dead and I can’t find it again.