[10] Principal industries in the town are tourism, fishing and agriculture: Dingle Mart (livestock market) serves the surrounding countryside.

In 2022, Dingle had a population of 1,671,[1] a decrease from the 2016 census, and the oldest average age for a town in Ireland (44.4 years).

[12] An adult Bottlenose dolphin named Fungie had been courting human contact in Dingle Bay since 1983 but disappeared in 2020.

[15] By the sixteenth century, Dingle was one of Ireland's main trading ports, exporting fish and hides and importing wines from the continent of Europe.

[15] Connections with Spain were particularly strong and, in 1529, Thomas Fitzgerald, 11th Earl of Desmond and the ambassador of Emperor Charles V signed the Treaty of Dingle.

[16] Dingle was also a major embarkation port for pilgrims to travel to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela.

[19] The fleet left the town after three days, anchoring at Dún an Óir at the western end of the peninsula, leading eventually to the Siege of Smerwick of 1580.

Following the defeat of the Desmond Rebellion, Queen Elizabeth directed that a royal charter be granted to incorporate the town as a borough, and to allow for the construction of walls.

In addition to the sovereign, who was elected annually on the Feast of St Michael, the corporation consisted of twelve burgesses.

[20] The charter also created Dingle a parliamentary borough, or constituency, electing two members to the House of Commons of the Irish Parliament.

The town started to recover in the eighteenth century, due to the efforts of the Fitzgerald family, Knights of Kerry, who established themselves at "The Grove" at this time.

Robert Fitzgerald imported flax seed and by 1755 a flourishing linen industry had been established, with cloth worth £60,000 produced annually.

Dingle as part of the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht also hosts Irish School for students during the summer.

The project also saw the demolition of the exterior walls to below the original clerestory level, and, most notably, of the attic and upper ranges of the west elevation.

The major Irish artist Harry Clarke produced six double-lancet stained glass windows for the chapel which were installed in 1924.

The minister added to the controversy by suggesting that a name change to English could be brought about by removing the town's Gaeltacht status, thereby losing its entitlement to government grants for Irish-speaking areas.

In late 2005, Kerry County Council approved the holding of a plebiscite for the change of name to the bilingual "Dingle/Daingean Uí Chúis"[33] which took place in October 2006.

In the meantime, some locals took matters into their own hands by spray painting "Dingle" on road signs that bore only the Irish version of the name.