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Career
O'Doherty's beginning in architecture was a good steppingstone for him to get into art and sculpting.

In the 1960s O’Doherty exhibited drawings and lithographs in Dublin Galleries, he later included paintings and small metal and stone sculptures. His work appeared in some major exhibitions such as the Independent Artists, Living Art, Oireachtas and the RHA.

In 2002 when he was in his 60s O’Doherty retired from lecturing and became a sculpture full time, it was then that he started to do what he would become known for, his large-scale commissioned public sculptures. There are around 30 of these sculptures around Ireland and more abroad worldwide. Some of his more well-known sculptures include ‘Galway Hookers’ (1984) in County Galway, ‘Anna Livia’ (1988), also known as ‘Floozie in the Jacuzzi’ in O'Connell Street and ‘Fauscailt’ (1998) in county Wexford, and various other statues across the globe, some of them commemorations to the Irish famine.

O’Doherty was a successful artist with many high-profile commissions that went on to become well known statues world-wide, the Anna Livia statue was commissioned by businessman Michael Smurfit for the Dublin Millennium Celebrations in 1988. Though there was quite a bit of controversy surrounding the statue and it was often defiled with litter and antisocial behavior. The statue was eventually removed from O'Connell street and put in its new home in Croppies' Acre Memorial Park. O'Doherty's Irish famine statues in America show Doherty’s role in the spread of Irish history and culture. O’Doherty was a recognized artist and he won many art competitions, his sculpture Crann an Oir which now resides outside of Central Bank was created for a National sculptors competition to commemorate Dublin’s year as European City of Culture in 1991. He also won the Conor/Moran award for sculpture at the RHA annual exhibition in 2006.