Was Arthur Guinness assassinated? House of Guinness explained

WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS

House of Guinness is on Netflix and the Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight's latest historical drama is already rising through the ranks.

The series is based on the true story of the Guinness family, and how four siblings - Arthur Guinness, Anne Guinness, Edward Guinness and Benjamin Guinness, were forced to continue their father's legacy.

Anthony Boyle plays the eldest son Arthur in the series and has already expressed his excitement for a potential second season following the cliffhanger ending.

The drama explains how the Fenian Brotherhood wanted to take all power away from the Guinness family, as they felt the voices of Irish people were being ignored.

In the show's final moments, Patrick Cochrane (Seamus O'Hara) is passionately committed to the Irish Republican cause and attempts to shoot Arthur - but did this really happen?

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Was Arthur Guinness assassinated?

While viewers saw a tense finale take place in the series, the attempted assassination of Arthur Guinness did not happen in real life.

While the real Arthur Guinness was involved in politics, taking over his father's seat in Parliament, he was not killed as a result.

In 1868 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the City of Dublin, a seat he held for only a year.

As the series depicts, his election agent had paid people to vote for him, an unlawful act Arthur knew nothing about. He was re-elected at the next election in 1874.

He died in January 1915 at his home at St Anne's, Raheny, but the cause of death is not known.

His funeral was attended by representatives of the Royal Dublin Society, of which he spent many years as president.

He had withdrawn from the Guinness company in 1876, when he sold his half-share to his brother Edward for £600,000.

In his lifetime, one of his best-known achievements was handing over the central public park of St Stephen's Green to the Dublin Corporation for public use.

House of Guinness is on Netflix