Is Netflix’s House of Guinness based on true story? Real history behind James Norton show

New Netflix series House of Guinness, starring Anthony Boyle and James Norton, is set to tell the story of how the infamous brewery first started and the chaos that surrounded the Guinness family in Dublin

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Netflix's brand-new historical drama is finally here as House of Guinness examines the lives and legacy of the Guinness brewing dynasty in 19th-century Ireland.

The series focuses on Sir Benjamin Guinness, the brewery heir whose sudden death in 1868 triggered a succession crisis within one of Ireland’s most powerful families.

His four children, Arthur, Edward, Anne, and Ben, are depicted as competing for control of the company and its vast fortune and the series sheds light on the internal conflicts that shaped the next stage of the Guinness empire.

While dramatised for television purposes, the show is based on real events and draws heavily from historical Irish records. Ahead of its launch on Netflix today (Thursday 25 September) the series production team confirmed that many characters mirror actual figures, and several major public events portrayed are drawn directly from the history of 19th-century Ireland, more specifically, Dublin.

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The drama also addresses the broader impact of the Guinness family beyond brewing the iconic stout. One of the most significant legacies explored in the series is the creation of the Iveagh Trust, established in the late 19th-century. The Iveagh Trust provided housing for Dublin’s working class people and continues to manage thousands of homes in the city today.

Netflix's House of Guinness - which has already been tipped to be a massive hit - was developed by writer Ivana Lowell, who is actually a descendant of the Guinness family.

Lowell collaborated with Steven Knight, who is best known as the creator of Peaky Blinders, to combine accurate historical detail with dramatised storytelling.

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Ahead of the series, they admitted that their partnership aims to provide "both authenticity and compelling narrative structure" and both hope to offer viewers a detailed look at one of Ireland’s most influential dynasties.

Viewers can expect to see the show traces how the Guinness name, long associated with one of the world’s most successful breweries, was also marked by private family tensions and bitter disputes over wealth and power. The show uses the family’s struggles to show a bigger picture of 19th-century Ireland, where business, politics, and social duties were closely linked.

In addition to dramatising family rivalries, House of Guinness highlights the pressures that came with prominence. The Guinness family not only ran one of the largest brewing enterprises of its time but also held significant political and social influence in Ireland and beyond.

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And Netflix can look forward to watching a stellar cast with some of the most talented actors in the business playing one of Ireland's most iconic families.

Arthur Guinness, who founded the Guinness Brewery at St. James's Gate in 1759, is being played by Irish actor Anthony Boyle, who has previously starred in Say Nothing and Derry Girls. Former child actor and Peter Pan star Louis Partridge is playing Arthur's brother Edward, meanwhile Black Mirror star Emily Fairn is playing Anne Guinness.

Each of the siblings must carry the weight and responsibility of their famous name into the future, as they seek to cement the legacy of their family after their father Benjamin Guinness' death.

On that journey, the Guinness heirs are met by allies (like James Norton’s Sean Rafferty), enemies, complicated love interests, and more as each character fights for their own best interests as well as that of the family business.

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Former Normal People star Fionn O’Shea also stars in the brand-new series, alongside Everything Now actress Niamh McCormack. Elsewhere, Happy Valley actor Norton is set to impress viewers with his undeniable Dublin accent which has already received rave reviews.

Filming for the new Netflix series has involved locations in Dublin and surrounding areas to maintain historical accuracy.

The series mixes real history with drama to show how one family built a business empire that has lasted almost 300 and influenced Irish society thanks to one of the most famous and recognisable brands across the globe.

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