Hugh O'Doherty

Hugh O'Doherty (died 10 March 1924) was an Irish nationalist politician.

O'Doherty worked as a solicitor in County Londonderry. 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. Later in 1918, his daughter drowned on the RMS Leinster.^[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. He was seen as a neutral candidate, acceptable to both the Nationalist Party group and to the Sinn Féin grouping. He ordered that the Union Jack should not be flown from the Guildhall.^[1] He also campaigned for Derry to be included in the Irish Free State.^[2] In 1922, O'Doherty called a conference of all nationalists in Northern Ireland, in a first attempt to develop a common platform.^[3]

O'Doherty's term as mayor ended in 1923, and he died the following year.

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