Obituary: Seán Rocks, actor and broadcaster who became an authentic voice of the arts scene on ‘Arena'

Irish Independent

5 days ago

The host of Arena, RTÉ Radio 1's nightly weekday arts and culture magazine show, didn't need to bang his own drum to make people notice him. Rather, with an authoritative lilt in his voice and a sometimes impish gleam in his eye, he would ask questions and dive into a range of topics that defined Arena as Ireland's must-hear radio programme for arts-adjacent matters and establish Rocks as an authentic, informed voice.
Such voices are rare, but he knew what he was talking about. And if he didn't love the more far-flung, daunting and esoteric areas of the arts, he did a great job at making you believe that he at least thought seriously about them.
Born in 1961, Rocks grew up in Drumbear, close to Monaghan town, within a business-oriented family. His parents, Philly and Paddy, ran Rocks' grocery shop on the town's Dawson Street. His father also operated one of the town's accountancy practices.
On leaving school, Rocks trained to be a teacher. Although throughout his childhood he and other family members were involved in local choirs, musicals and plays, it was at teacher training college that he became more seriously involved with amateur dramatics. Throughout his seven years as a teacher, his nights and weekends were taken up with part-time acting.
An avid book-lover, Rocks embraced the world of theatre, reading a broad range of playwrights' works before he decided to take a career break to pursue acting. Towards the end of this sabbatical, however, it was through the work of another Monaghan man and former teacher), author/playwright Pat McCabe, that Rocks' career as an actor began in earnest.
Adapted from McCabe's 1992 novel, The Butcher Boy, the play Frank Pig Says Hello was first performed at the 1992 Dublin Theatre Festival. A two-hander featuring Rocks as Frank and David Gorry as Piglet, the play's success pivoted not only on McCabe's words, but also on the acting.
In an interview with the Irish Times in 2021, Longford-born author Adrian Duncan recalled seeing the play as a 15-year-old in Bog Lane Theatre, Ballymahon: 'I remember Seán Rocks played all of the other characters in the play, and this amazed me. I recall one innovation… where Seán played at once both Mrs Nugent and her son, Philip. Seán stalked comedically across the stage as Mrs Nugent snootishly avoided Frank Pig and his pig-toll tax, all the while on Rocks' upturned fist, held at shoulder height beside him, sat bobbing Phillip Nugent's public-schoolboy cap.'
Rocks would subsequently feature in plays by Joe O'Byrne (The Last Potato, 1994), Marina Carr (Portia Coughlan, 1996), Mark O'Rowe (From Both Hips, 1997), Declan Hughes (Halloween Night, 1997), Tom Murphy (The Wake, 1998) and Mike Finn (The Quiet Moment, 2002). Roles on television put paid to thoughts of returning to teaching, with appearances on Glenroe (1992), Family (1994), The Bill (1999) and Proof (2005).
He turned an initially tough gig into a show that you continued to listen to
Alongside acting, he ventured into radio work, initially with Lyric FM, with which he started broadcasting in 2000. Producing and presenting documentaries eventually led to being tasked, in 2009, with fronting Arena, a new nightly arts magazine show on RTÉ Radio 1.
Under his stewardship, and diligent work by a small team of researchers and producers, he turned an initially tough gig (the broadcast time of 7pm, when most people are either settling down to watch television or going out for the night) into a show that you continued to listen to.
ADVERTISEMENT
Within a year, Arena became the national broadcaster's hidden gem, bolstered not only by an increasing reputation for featuring an expansive range of arts topics, but also by the man behind the microphone.
Rocks quickly came into his own as a presenter: from regular listening, you knew that he was more than comfortable with the brief.
Seán Rocks was able to guide a multitude of panellists and guests away from verbal rabbit holes. He was also a presenter who listened to the people he interviewed or the panel he moderated.
​Unlike some presenters, he could calmly veer away from the questions list if someone said something that prompted a different line of inquiry. In company, he was never someone whose thoughts or opinions got caught like a rabbit in headlights.
I consider myself fortunate to have been in the Arena studio with him on many occasions from around the summer of 2015 to the Covid spring of 2020. Visiting to discuss mostly albums and music books, there wasn't one time I can remember that he made me feel anything less than a valued contributor.
It helped that as the months and years passed, we settled into something that could safely be termed a groove. We each became aware of each other's conversational tics, tell-tale raised eyebrows and, at times, cynical glances.
Quite often, my review slot would be timed in the show's final 15 minutes, which meant we would both walk out of the radio centre to our cars, chatting to each other, not always inconsequentially.
That book or album, he would query, referring to a just-reviewed item. 'I know you said you liked it, but would you buy it?' He would have a grin in his eye, put his head to one side, and then he would be off home.
In my experience of him as a person, all of the tributes to him and everything you have read about him over the past few days hold true. 'The story of my life does not fit into neat chapters,' Seán Rocks told the Irish Examiner in 2014. 'It's more like a post-modernist sprawling mess.' Maybe, maybe not. But what a book it was.
Seán Rocks is survived by his wife, Catherine, his sons Christian and Morgan, and his siblings.