Siobhan McSweeney’s ‘The Traitors Ireland’ Style Inspired by Pirate Queen

Siobhan McSweeney Channels Ireland’s Pirate Queen for The Traitors Season 2

The Bottom Line

• The Inspiration: Stylist Anne O’Shea and Siobhan McSweeney anchored Season 2’s aesthetic in the legendary 16th-century Pirate Queen, Gráinne Mhaol.
• The Sustainability Push: The production leaned heavily into homegrown Irish design, vintage finds, and clever upcycling, transforming everyday garments into screen-ready masterworks.

The Anatomy of a Castle Wardrobe

Television fashion rarely marries narrative tension with historical homage quite like this. Last year, stylist Anne O’Shea’s career rocketed when she was tapped to dress the Derry Girls star for the inaugural outing of Ireland’s psychological deception hit. Collaborating closely with McSweeney, O’Shea initially built a mood board of powerhouse twentieth-century icons including Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, and Enya. They ultimately delivered 26 unforgettable looks.

Here is the kicker. Stepping into a damp, dramatic Irish castle for a high-stakes social deduction format requires armor. For the sophomore run at Slane Castle, the pressure to eclipse last year’s visual triumphs was palpable. O’Shea admitted feeling the heat, noting that repetition was never an option. The solution lay in looking further back into Irish history for a figure who embodied supreme mystery, grit, and immaculate accessorizing.

Enter Gráinne Mhaol, the formidable 16th-century seafaring adventurer. Traces of the Pirate Queen weave directly through the current season’s sartorial choices. Viewers can spot deliberate nods to the maritime ruler via sweeping hats, billowing blouses, and strategic glints of gold. In one standout scene, McSweeney sports a cape lined with Éadach silk prints. In another, she gleams in antique treasures sourced from Delphi Antiques. When selecting the season’s Traitors, she pairs a striking Conor O’Brien blouse with a single, swashbucklingly chic earring.

Channeling Lady Muck and Local Talent

Pulling off high-concept television requires theatrical psychology. Just as pop icons summon alter egos to command a stage, McSweeney invokes “Lady Muck” to slip into character. Inspired by the steely women in her life—particularly her late mother, whom she remembers waiting for someone else to pump her petrol—the alter ego adds an extra layer of theatrical armor. In promotional spots, McSweeney even wore a necklace inherited from her mother, grounding the high-fashion pageantry in personal family history.

Photo: europesays.com

The Evolution of The Traitors Ireland Wardrobe

Metric / Detail	Season 1	Season 2
Primary Inspirations	Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Enya	Gráinne Mhaol (Pirate Queen of Connaught)
Key Irish Designers & Makers	Paula Rowan, Orla Langan, Delphi Antiques	Mia Walsh Studios, Michelle Kearns, Miss She’s Got Knits
Key Viewership Benchmark	732,000 TV viewers / 89,000 live streams	Returning momentum at Slane Castle

Behind the scenes, the production continues to champion homegrown Irish craftsmanship. While Season 1 showcased talents like Paula Rowan and Sarah O’Neill’s Éadach, the new episodes expand the roster. O’Shea collaborated with Mia Walsh Studios, Michelle Kearns—who crafted a custom headpiece—and Miss She’s Got Knits. Sustainability remained a core pillar of the styling room. Mia Walsh cleverly upcycled a plain A-line black dress from McSweeney’s personal closet into a dramatic screen-ready top, while the Zip Yard fused sleeves from an Other Stories garment with a Julia Allert dress to engineer a furry masterpiece.

Despite the undeniable cultural footprint of the series, O’Shea notes that courting independent designers still has its hurdles. While industry interest has ticked upward, she wishes more creators possessed the bold confidence to pitch fully formed ideas and sketches directly. For Irish creatives watching the runaway success of the castle games, the message is clear: the runway is open, but you have to knock on the door.

The Broader Cultural Footprint

Reality competition formats live and die by their atmosphere. Shows like The Traitors—whether tracking the UK iteration on BBC or international variants—rely on gothic architecture, atmospheric lighting, and high-concept costuming to separate themselves from standard studio game shows. By injecting distinct, locally rooted historical narratives into the presenter’s wardrobe, the Irish adaptation elevates itself from a simple franchise localization into a distinct cultural event.

As streaming platforms and linear networks alike battle for viewer retention in an increasingly crowded media landscape, aesthetic distinctiveness becomes a primary retention tool. When audiences tune in to watch contestants lie, backstab, and banish each other under the watchful eye of a modern pirate queen, they aren’t just consuming a game. They are buying into a fully realized fantasy world where every cape, collar, and antique brooch tells a story.