It is operated as a five-star luxury hotel with a golf course, with its restaurant, the "Earl of Thomond", being awarded a Michelin star in 1995, under head chef Jean Baptiste Molinari.

[1] Dromoland Castle was the ancestral home of the O'Briens, Barons of Inchiquin, who are one of the few native Gaelic families of royal blood, and direct descendants of Brian Boroimhe (Boru), High King of Ireland in the eleventh century.

[2] For reasons of health and financial concerns, in the early 1960s Donough O'Brien (of the O'Brien dynasty), the sixteenth Baron of Inchiquin, decided to sell Dromoland castle, along with a parcel of 400 acres of land plus shooting and fishing rights to an American businessman, Bernard McDonough.

[5] United States President George W. Bush spent the night of Friday, 26 June 2004, at Dromoland Castle to attend the EU-US Summit held at the facility.

President Bush was guarded by approximately 7,000 police, military and private security forces during his 16-hour visit.