Lucy Nichols reviews a new series dramatizing class and power in post-Famine Ireland under British rule

Though on the surface, House of Guinness is merely another Succession-like family drama that chronicles the history of the world’s most popular stout, there are some serious politics hiding in this eight-episode series. The soundtrack is also fantastic, with Kneecap and Fontaines D.C. featuring heavily.

The Netflix drama is set in Dublin during Britain’s colonial rule of Ireland. We are also only two decades on from the Great Famine, for which British policy bears heavy responsibility. The famine left a million dead and created another million refugees. Both great injustices feature heavily in House of Guinness.

The phenomenally wealthy and Protestant Guinness family was unaffected by the famine and relies on the British Empire to sell its beer. After the death of the patriarch, the four remaining Guinness children jostle for power and money.

The male heirs to the Guinness fortune settle on expanding the business, by whatever means necessary. Meanwhile, the female members of the house of Guinness focus on expanding the company’s charitable ventures, including by building housing near the St James’ Gate brewery. All the staples of a Netflix drama follow: sex, violence, secrets, and betrayal.

The series is slightly predictable. There is nothing particularly groundbreaking when it comes to plot, direction, or cinematography. However, it does what it says on the tin, and is in this way a satisfying and enjoyable watch.

What is arguably ground-breaking is how it portrays Irish history, for an international audience. This programme follows the hugely popular Peaky Blinders, both written by Steven Knight,and is the subject of a serious advertising campaign from Netflix.

It will probably be one of the bigger programmes this year, broadcast all over the world. This will include Britain, where the dark history of the British Empire in Ireland is not exactly mainstream knowledge, and where the Irish ‘potato famine’ is often the butt of right-wing jokes.

One of the key storylines in House of Guinness revolves around the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who are treated as a genuine movement for Irish liberation and not stereotyped as terrorists.

Class is an overarching theme in the programme, although the Guinness family is, rather annoyingly, portrayed as paternalistic and benevolent. The stark differences between Protestant high society and the poverty of the Irish working-class and peasant Catholics are made clear, and the Guinness family members often come up against this poverty.

One of the series’ more poignant scenes is born out of this theme, as Ann Guinness, the younger daughter of the dead patriarch, travels to survey the family’s vast estate in County Mayo. She passes through the village of Cloonboo (Cluain Bú in Irish) and, by accident, visits one of the mass graves from the famine.

The Guinness family owned Cloonboo at the time and did nothing as hundreds starved to death. A village matriarch explains the suffering endured throughout the famine, that they were too weak to even dig individual graves for their loved ones.

At a time of increasing nationalism, where history is bent and shaped by those in power for political gain, it is refreshing to see a portrayal of Irish history and British colonialism like the House of Guinness. Indeed, it is refreshing to see any portrayal of Irish history at all, particularly one with such a strong emphasis on class, and political and national struggle.

It is not perfect, and becomes unrealistic at times, particularly as it portrays rich capitalists as paternalistic philanthropists. It is also the first Netflix programme to offer viewers the chance to watch with Irish subtitles, part of the resurgence of a language that British colonialism tried so hard to wipe out.