The Dripsey area hosts a water treatment plant, the Cork offices of the Environmental Protection Agency, and an award-winning garden center.

[6] The village of Dripsey traces its foundation to the MacCarthy of Muskerry, who - in the 15th century - constructed a nearby tower house to protect their estate lands.

[12] There is a monument erected on the road from Dripsey to Coachford to the men who died after a failed ambush against the British Army during the War of Independence.

[14] On 28 January 1921, in an area known as Godfrey's Cross, approximately half-way between the villages of Coachford and Dripsey, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush party lay in wait for a convoy of British troops that regularly used the road when travelling between Ballincollig Barracks and Macroom.

News of the planned ambush became common knowledge in the area, and one resident - a Mrs Mary Lindsay - travelled to the barracks at Ballincollig and advised of what she knew.

Between 3pm and 4pm, a column of British troops left the barracks, and dismounted from their lorries at Dripsey before dividing into groups to surround the ambush party.

Two of the more seriously wounded IRA men were subsequently moved to the military hospital in Victoria Barracks.

[citation needed] On 8 February 1921, the trial of eight of the ten captured men opened in the military detention barracks.

Volunteer Jeremiah O'Callaghan together with civilians Eugene Langtry and Denis Sheehan (both of whom had no connection with the IRA) were found not guilty and released.

Of the two men still detained in the military hospital, Captain James Barrett died while still a prisoner on 22 March 1922.

[17] Mrs. Lindsay, the woman who alerted the military to the ambush, and a member of her household, James Clarke, were subsequently taken hostage by the IRA in an unsuccessful effort to obtain reprieves for the convicted Volunteers.

[21] This "shortest" St. Patrick's Day parade, went from one door to the next of the village's two pubs, The Weigh Inn and The Lee Valley.