O'Doherty attempted to use his contacts in London to secure himself a role as a courtier which would have given him much greater influence, and sought a position in the household of Henry, Prince of Wales.

Unknown to him, the very day that he began his rising the London government had approved his request to join the Prince of Wales, and had generally sided with him against the Dublin administration.

[citation needed] Although the garrison numbered somewhere as high as a hundred soldiers, with many other men among the civilian population who could bear arms, they were completely taken by surprise as no sentries had been posted.

News of the fall of Derry caused alarm in Dublin, partly because the Irish Army was very small at the time and it was not prepared to respond to the northern uprising.

Paulet was widely blamed for the defeat as he was disliked by his soldiers and settlers, had antagonized local inhabitants such as O'Doherty and had not taken basic military preparations such as posting a night watch.

O'Doherty possibly hoped that he would be offered a settlement by the government, as had happened during rebellions over previous decades, rather than risking a long and expensive war.

This prospect was dashed by the quick response of Sir Arthur Chichester in Dublin who oversaw the dispatch of what reinforcements he could spare northwards and the raising of loyal Gaelic forces.

[13] One consequence of the rising was a major change in the planned Ulster Plantation, which had previously been intended to involve a few limited settlements, alongside a re-sharing of the lands among the loyalist Gaelic leaders.

However, after O'Doherty's attack on Derry, the government no longer trusted many of the Gaelic leaders, even those who had not risen in revolt, and brought in a more ambitious scheme of importing large numbers of English and Scottish settlers.