Born June 8th, 1961
Died July 30th, 2025
As a child, Seán Rocks would be the one asked to recite a poem or sing a song at family gatherings. Naturally outgoing and interested in the arts - prone, he once told the Irish Examiner, to “flights of fancy” despite his pragmatic nature - it was perhaps unsurprising that he became an actor in adulthood. But it was a later swerve into radio that set him on the path to presenting Arena on RTÉ Radio 1 in 2009.
The loss of his voice at the helm of this daily arts show will be felt keenly after his death aged 64, following a short illness.
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He was born in Monaghan town and grew up with two sisters and two brothers. His father was an accountant and his parents ran a grocery shop on the town’s Dawson Street. Rocks retained more than a trace of his native accent as a radio presenter, as well as a fierce pride in his home county.
[ Seán Rocks: Ireland has lost one of its great cultural championsOpens in new window ]
Before his radio career there was the stage, and before that there was the classroom. While in Carysfort College training to be a teacher, he took part in amateur drama productions. Later, while teaching at Friary National School in Dundalk in the early 1980s, he was “in demand” as an actor, joining the Castle Players and later the Dolmen Theatre Group, local Gerry Roddy recalled for the Argus.
Rocks was “a brilliant teacher”, says his long-time friend Seamus Moran, a fellow actor who attended Carysfort at the same time as him. He had a gift for maths, and was also patient and understanding, he says. Yet Rocks became so passionate about theatre that he took a career break from teaching to pursue acting in the late 1980s.
In the final year of the career break, he starred alongside David Gorry in Co-Motion’s 1992 production of Pat McCabe’s play Frank Pig Says Hello, adapted from the novel The Butcher Boy. Rocks later recalled thinking “this is either absolutely brilliant, or appalling”. It turned out to be the former - and his big break.
He tread the boards at the Abbey, Peacock and Gate theatres and also acted on TV shows including The Bill, Glenroe and Fair City. “It wasn’t easy,” Seamus Moran says of the transition into acting. “There were no drama schools after the Leaving Cert. There were no easy roads.” Rocks had a humility and a vulnerability that he brought to roles, and “he could elicit sympathy for characters that maybe weren’t sympathetic”, says his friend. “And with his voice and stage presence, he would have been a great Shakespearean actor,” adds Moran, concluding: “If he was your friend, he was your rock.”
Another long-time friend, actress Marion O’Dwyer, highlights Rocks’s “honesty, wise counsel, loyalty, mischief and great roast dinners”. They were introduced by the late director Derek Chapman at Peter’s Pub in Dublin, and their long friendship began when they attended a play together at the Focus Theatre. After going for a drink during the interval, they became so engrossed in conversation that they missed the play’s second half.
O’Dwyer and Rocks and another friend later became housemates. O’Dwyer describes Rocks as a “domestic goddess” - with a special sock-pairing method and a love for cooking dinner - and a gifted raconteur. He and O’Dwyer spent many evenings shedding a tear to the film Brief Encounter, with the viewings followed by Rocks’s uncanny impressions of its child stars.
Rather than voice notes, he left “personal podcasts”, says O’Dwyer. He was known for his “dad jokes”, and was delighted when his sons, Christian and Morgan, began making up their own jokes. O’Dwyer notes that when he played the role of King Pat of the Rats in the Pat McCabe play for children The Adventures of Shay Mouse, his “villainous voice” was so good that it made children cry.
Rocks was also a talented musician. Moran recalled how as part of his interview for Carysfort College the prospective teacher played the trumpet brilliantly - much to the surprise of the other trainees. He also was the guitar player for many nights of sing-songs with friends, and his party piece was Big Time Woman, by Freddie White.
An early foray into radio came in a production of Pat McCabe’s play Emerald Germs of Ireland on Radio One in 2000, alongside Pat Kinevan and Niall Toibin. Rocks described his eventual transition to working in radio as “accidental” - it came via a Shakespeare documentary series for Lyric FM.
He soon joined the station and went on to present a range of programmes, including a history of musicals, and stood in on occasion for presenter Myles Dungan on the arts show Rattlebag on RTÉ. Within a few years, Rocks had moved to RTÉ Radio 1, where he presented shows and documentaries. Arena was launched in September 2009.
[ ‘The nation loved you’: Mourners gather for funeral of Seán Rocks in MonaghanOpens in new window ]
Behind Rocks on Arena was a tight-knit production team. “People came back to Arena again and again simply because they knew Seán would talk to them about their work in an authentic way, always respectful of the effort they put in,” says Arena’s series producer Sinéad Egan. “But alongside his talent and professionalism, we just had the best craic in studio. Producing Seán was so much fun - especially on a Friday, his giddiness was completely infectious. Live radio studios can be stressful places, but never with Seán Rocks.”
Former Arena series producer Kay Sheehy says: “We knew Seán loved presenting Arena because he would tell you - he was that open, honest kind of a person.” Both Egan and Sheehy praised Rocks’s skills and charisma during Arena’s outside broadcasts, which included interviews with the likes of authors Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry, and specials at the Abbey on playwrights such as Tom Murphy. They gave him the chance “to use his erudition and enthusiasm in equal measure”, says Sheehy. Rocks hoped that RTÉ Television would one day bring Arena to the screen on a weekly basis.
When Rocks moved into radio, O’Dwyer told her friend it was perfect for him as he loved talking. But she noted with seriousness that his “particular brilliance was his ability to listen”. Many interviewees have spoken of his generosity and astuteness as an interviewer; how no matter the art form at hand, whether on live radio or before a public audience, he knew how to get to the heart of the question.
Yet Rocks was a family man ahead of being a radio star. His most treasured role was within the family he created with his beloved Catherine and their two adored sons, Christian and Morgan. While living in Limerick in 2004 he met the Kerry arts-lover who became his soulmate. Rocks found “bliss” in parenthood, says O’Dwyer, and excelled at being a father, introducing his sons to nature, music and sports.
Being the host of a daily arts show necessitated a high level of knowledge and research. When O’Dwyer worried whether her friend had enough time to himself given the preparation needed for Arena, Rocks told her: “You forget that I really love and enjoy what I’m doing.” Yet he never took his job for granted. “He just didn’t realise how good he was,” says Seamus Moran. “He was always trying to be better.”
Tributes to Seán Rocks have included those from President Michael D Higgins, who praised Rocks’s “rich insight into all aspects of the arts and culture”; author Sebastian Barry, who said Rocks was “a work of art himself”; RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst, who said Ireland has “lost one of its most passionate advocates for the arts” and Tara Campbell, who told Morning Ireland that Rocks was “much-loved and widely respected”.
Seán Rocks is survived by his much-loved Catherine, sons Christian and Morgan, and his siblings Pádraig, Siobhán, Ciarán and Gráinne. He was predeceased by his parents, Paddy and Philly; and his brother Eamon, who died in infancy.
