The biggest name in Netflix’s new series House of Guinness may be James Norton, but the man behind it is bigger. Steven Knight, best known as creator of smash hit Peaky Blinders, has been brewing up another tale of Irish rogues, villains, drug abusers and loose women – and that’s just the children of Guinness tycoon Benjamin Lee Guinness.
Set in Dublin in 1868, 50 years before the events of Peaky Blinders, House of Guinness begins with the death of brewery boss Benjamin Lee Guinness, grandson of founder Arthur. Each episode is preceded by a disclaimer – ‘This fiction is inspired by true stories’ – which gives Knight an off licence to take liberties with the facts.
Luckily, we have Guinness dynasty expert Professor Adrian Tinniswood, author of the upcoming book The Houses of Guinness: The Lives, Homes and Fortunes of the Great Brewing Dynasty (out November 6), to pour one out for the truth about the show they’re calling ‘Succession with stout’.
Was the Guinness family as powerful as the show depicts at the outset?
The series gets the family’s wealth and influence spot on, says the historian. ‘The first Arthur founded the brewery,’ Tinniswood explains, ‘and his son, the second Arthur, moved into the production of stout. But it was Benjamin Lee, the younger son, who was the powerhouse. He really got things moving. He was a very astute businessman, much more so than his father, and is widely considered to be Ireland’s first millionaire.’
Was Benjamin Lee’s son Arthur gay?
There’s no evidence that Arthur, played in the series by Belfast-born Anthony Boyle (Masters of the Air), was gay, although his uncle Arthur probably was. ‘There were a number of scandals surrounding the older Arthur, and his brother had to buy him out of trouble,’ says Tinniswood. ‘But other than the fact that he had what was then called a “marriage blanc” – a marriage on paper – there’s no evidence that Arthur, Benjamin Lee’s son, was gay. Although he and his aristocratic wife, Olive, never produced any children, I think it’s a case of Steven Knight getting his Arthurs muddled up.’
Were two of the Guinness children cut out of his will?
Yes and no, says the historian. Daughter Anne, played by Emily Fairn, was married to a Church of Ireland clergyman, and the fact that she was left out of the will – the largest bequest in Irish history at the time – was not unusual. ‘[Son] Benjamin (played by Normal People’s Fionn O’Shea) had his own career in the Horse Guards,’ Tinniswood adds, ‘but he was still given a generous stipend of £20,000 a year – a fortune for the time – even though he was known to have a gambling problem.’
Is James Norton’s character, Rafferty, based on a real person?
In the series, James Norton (King & Conqueror) plays a Guinness family fixer called Sean Rafferty. Tinniswood is unconvinced. ‘Obviously I can’t say definitively that this is false or that is false, but I’ve never heard of anything like that. I mean… “Rafferty”, for goodness’ sake! He sounds to me like an invention.’
Was there a riot at Benjamin Lee’s funeral?
‘I’ve never heard that,’ says Tinniswood of a scrap stoked by anti-unionist nationalists (better known as ‘Fenians’) in an early episode. The Guinnesses were staunch unionists, [but] they also stood for Catholic emancipation. So it was complicated.’
The idea of America being a possible market is a great surprise to me
Did a secret love child act as an ambassador for Guinness in New York?
There’s no evidence that Benjamin Lee – or his wife Olivia, as claimed – had an illegitimate son, much less a Fenian activist named Byron Hedges – played in the show by Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones’ Joffrey) who was dispatched to America to act on the family’s behalf as a kind of brand ambassador. ‘The idea of America being a possible market is a great surprise to me,’ Tinniswood explains. ‘At that time, they would have been focused on Britain, where sales of porter were going up, and also of course rural Ireland, which was a long way from rural Ireland in the 19th century. So they were more concerned with improving domestic transport links than America as a potential market.’
Was Arthur ever arrested on corruption charges over his election as an MP?
He was, and although he was found innocent, claiming he had no knowledge of bribing his way into Parliament, some in his inner circle were convicted. ‘Whether he turned a blind eye or genuinely didn’t know what was going on is hard to say,’ says Tinniswood. ‘But election bribery was pretty widespread at the time.’
House of Guinness streams on Netflix from Thursday, September 25.
