Guest Lecture: Dr. Loic Wright (University of Wuppertal, Germany): "Class, Identity, and the New Stereotypes of Irishness in Netflix's 'House of Guinness' (2025)"

Steven Knight’s 2025 Netflix-distributed series, House of Guinness, has been favourably described in reviews as “Succession with shillelaghs” and negatively as “Steampunk Mr. Tayto.” In the new series, the death of Benjamin Lee Guinness is depicted as the precipitating event in a tension-laden scramble for power in 1860s Dublin. Among the chief concerns of the inheriting Guinness children are the rising Fenian movement, the poverty endemic in the ‘second city’ of the British Empire, and the global expansion of the Guinness brand into the Americas. Despite key engagement with Irish culture—through diligent casting of Irish actors, implementation of Irish language subtitles, the use of Irish language within the show, and an all-Irish soundtrack—the series continues to proliferate myths and stereotypes about Ireland and Irish identity. Moreover, while the research carried out in the writing of the series is evident, it frequently succumbs to facile and cheap thrills in the promotion of a sexualised, attractive Irishness. With recent critiques of the series’ “iPhone Face” issue, stereotyping, and constructions of a heavily marketable image of ‘The Fighting Irish,’ House of Guinness appears less revolutionary than intended.
This lecture will investigate how House of Guinness has, despite some international appeal and genuine attempts to chronicling an Irish narrative, essentially recycled Irish stereotypes into a new age, manipulating Ireland’s ‘moment’ of increased visibility on the global cultural stage. As such, I consider how the Netflix series is committed, instead, to marketing and selling a new, neo-liberal vision of Ireland, rebellious and salacious.

Dr. Loic Wright is the Visiting Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Wuppertal. His research focuses on the role of Irish literature and culture in the construction of national identity, considering Masculinities studies, post-colonialism, and national conditions. Loic has taught at University College Dublin (UCD) and the International Learning Academy (ILA) Dublin. He has also worked at the James Joyce Cultural Centre in Dublin and as an international media and Irish cultural liaison for Fáilte Ireland (Irish Tourism Board). As well as publications in Irish Studies Review, Estudios Irlandeses, and Review of Irish Studies in Europe (RISE), Loic’s monograph Masculinities in Mid-Twentieth-Century Irish Fiction and Culture, 1931-1965 was published by Routledge in 2025.

Registration

If you are interested in participating in this event, please sign up by submitting this registration form or by sending an email with the subject line “WRIGHT” to irishstudies@uni-wuerzburg.de by November 29, 2025. Please include your full name and affiliation. Please note that the above given email address is used solely for registration purposes. If you want to contact ISWÜ, please use the contact information given below.

Contact

Irish Studies Würzburg (ISWÜ)
Prof. Dr. Ina Bergmann & Prof. Dr. Maria Eisenmann
ina.bergmann@uni-wuerzburg.de,  maria.eisenmann@uni-wuerzburg.de