India, Nov. 14 -- The Netflix period drama House of Guinness arrived in September, billed as a hybrid of Succession and Peaky Blinders. It chronicles the power struggle within Ireland's most famous brewing dynasty, in the wake of the death of the head of the family, Benjamin Guinness, in 1868. The eight-part series has proven divisive: while American and British critics have largely embraced it as "irresistible" entertainment, Irish reviewers have been scathing, criticising everything from its treatment of colonialism to its depictions of Fenians as "feral leprechauns", in the words of one critic.

Amid this split, one element stands out: the audacious, anachronistic soundtrack that marries contemporary Irish punk and rap with traditional...