A supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell, he was a founder member of the Irish National League.
Following Parnell's death, O'Doherty withdrew from politics until 1918, when he was elected to Derry Corporation as a Nationalist Party councillor.
[1] In 1920, a nationalist majority emerged on the Londonderry Corporation, and O'Doherty was elected as the first nationalist and first Roman Catholic Mayor of Derry, a post which carried with it membership of the Senate of Northern Ireland.
Although seen as a neutral candidate, acceptable to both the Nationalist Party group and to the Sinn Féin grouping, his inaugural speech did little to allay the fears of the Unionist population of the city: "Ireland's right to determine her own destiny will come about whether the Protestants of Ulster like it or not".
[3] In 1922, O'Doherty called a conference of all nationalists in Northern Ireland, in a first attempt to develop a common platform.