Among the scores of people who have binged Netflix’s House of Guinness to date, and have kept the series at the number one spot in Ireland and the UK, was the great-great-grandson of one of the main characters.
Although “surreal” to see his family’s story depicted, Edward Guinness, the 4th Earl of Iveagh, disagrees with some of the depictions, though believes the portrayal of his great-great-grandfather, Edward, is largely faithful, describing him as a “stickler” and “assiduous”.
The Guinness heir had no part in the show’s production, though it was conceived by his cousin, Ivana Lowell, who is said to have been inspired while on a trip to Leixlip Castle in Co Kildare, during which she saw an episode of Downton Abbey.
House of Guinness was subsequently helmed by Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders.
RM Block
Although he describes the series as a “good attempt”, Edward Guinness believes the four siblings, Arthur, Edward, Anne, and Benjamin, are “emphasised much more than they were in real life.”
He makes this observation having pored over family papers, various pieces of correspondence, and the archives in the Guinness Storehouse, for his new book Guinness: A Family Succession, which sets out to tell the story of his family.
“It [the Netflix series] makes no ambition at relating to purely fact,” he says.
“Netflix is what it is,” he says, though he does credit the show for its “beautiful photography”.
Each episode opens with a caveat that “this fiction is inspired by true stories”, though audiences are left none the wiser as to what is fact and what is fiction.
While it may have gripped viewers, one of the earliest scenes shows a riot, instigated by the Fenians, causing chaos as Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness’s coffin passes large crowds.
However, an Irish Times report from May 28th, 1868, details how he was mourned by those of all backgrounds and classes, “as one of the most generous employers and kindest of benefactors”.
The day in question was in fact a “sombre affair”, said historian Dr Kevin Egan, who has carried out extensive research on the period explored in the series.
“Steven Knight obviously needed something to add to the violent aspect, because that’s one of his tropes. The Fenians had gone underground from 1867, the year before, so the Fenians were not an active force in Irish life at that stage,” he says.
While the presence and activities of the Fenians, who play a large part in the narrative, are inaccurate, a temperance preacher who is shown outside the Guinness gates in the opening episode, reflects a “very real sentiment” at the time.
Dr Egan cites a pamphlet written at the time, which “essentially blamed Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness for all the evils in Ireland because of his brewing”.
Overall, the series presents the family as being in a “much more dominating position than they actually had”.
“They weren’t this sort of mafia-type family subjecting the populace, that’s not true,” he says.
While senior positions at the brewery tended to go to Protestants, Dr Egan says the unionist family employed Catholics, contrary to popular belief, and created a “family atmosphere” throughout all ranks at the brewery, resulting in generations of families working there, including his own.
“The Guinness brewery provided the best comprehensive package of social care in Britain or Ireland. It was so well-rounded,” Dr Egan says, describing the offering, which included medical, housing, and dental care at one point as “extraordinary”.
A big plot point of the series is that Arthur Guinness, who married Lady Olivia Hedges-White, is gay, which Dr Egan says is “likely”.
Alongside not having any children, this assumption is based on the couple’s marriage settlement, an agreement made before their wedding.
“Normally, a marriage settlement makes recommendations for the children of the forthcoming marriage.
“There’s no mention of children in that at all, which is very unusual and which means that she was going into a marriage knowing that she was never going to have children,” Dr Egan says.
Anne and Edward, meanwhile, were “to a certain extent” portrayed accurately, with Edward said to have been “strategic”.
Anne threw herself into charitable work, and as depicted, suffered with her health, often travelling to the Mediterranean to benefit from the warm climate before dying at the age of 50.
Benjamin, however, was the “complete opposite” to his portrayal, Dr Egan says. The sibling is depicted as a depressive type, hindered by alcoholism.
“He didn’t have an alcohol addiction, he had a gambling addiction, and he wasn’t depressive,” he says, describing him as a “bon vivant”, one who loved life “too much probably”.
The main catalyst for the series, Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness’s will, meanwhile, is inaccurate, he says, as Anne and Benjamin were, in reality, “well looked after” by their late father.
It is true, however, that he made it “as difficult as possible to break the partnership” between his sons Arthur and Edward.
“He obviously wished it to remain in the family,” he says, though they ultimately managed to redraw the terms, with Edward ultimately taking full control.
Regardless of the inaccuracies in the series, Dr Egan says he is glad it has brought these characters to the fore.
“They’ve been forgotten for so long, and I’d hope that people would want to read more and read the truth about it,” he says.
“Dublin floated on Guinness, they shaped the city more than any citizen in its history. There’s only one other family in the western world that’s comparable or so associated with one city, and that’s the Medici in Florence,” he says.
This ranged from the family’s social influence to the physical shaping and urban regeneration of a decaying Dublin city.
“What the Medici are to Florence, the Guinnesses are to Dublin,” he says.
