Seán Rocks: Ireland has lost one of its great cultural champions

The broadcaster Seán Rocks, who has died after a short illness at the age of 64, was the voice of the arts on Irish radio, his instantly recognisable Border-county tones synonymous with comprehensive yet accessible cultural programming on the airwaves.

As the presenter of Arena, RTÉ Radio 1’s weeknight arts show, he covered every imaginable aspect of the creative world with a relaxed confidence and attentive curiosity.

Whether the subject was highbrow literature or lo-fi music, conceptual art or blockbuster movies, Rocks was always an engaged and inquisitive host, with an ever-present mischievous streak that ensured proceedings never grew too arid for listeners.

His dreadfully premature death is an incalculable loss to Irish broadcasting as well as a devastating bereavement for his family.

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As host of Arena since its launch, in 2009, Rocks not only dealt with a wide spectrum of areas and artforms but also ensured his show was always worth tuning into, even on nights when the menu was thinner than usual. He was an adept interviewer of big-name guests, from literary giants such as Edna O’Brien and Salman Rushdie to comedy stars such as Ricky Gervais.

But just as importantly on a nightly show, where promising material can be at a premium, he brought a lively commitment to the panel discussions and reviews that provided much of his programmes’ content. The topics could be uneven, but Rocks was a dependably appealing presence, as well as a deft guide through the more intimidating thickets of the cultural world.

His skill as a communicator was honed early on. He described himself as an outgoing child, a trait that served him well as an adult. A native of Monaghan town, where his father was an accountant and owned a grocery, he started his professional life as a teacher. After seven years in education he took a different path, inadvertently at first: having become interested in drama studies to help his voice in the classroom, he began working as an actor.

Throughout the 1990s he accumulated roles on screen, including in Glenroe and Fair City, and on the stage, appearing in productions at the Abbey and the Gate, in works by the likes of Tom Murphy and Marina Carr. (He also appeared in the premiere production of The Cure at Troy, by my late father, Seamus Heaney.)

By his own admission, his radio career began almost by accident, when in 2000 he pitched a series to Lyric FM about Shakespeare and music. But he had found his metier. His previous professions proved to be valuable training for his future career on Arena, not only giving him a grounding as an educator and an arts practitioner but also providing him with the skill set for live radio: “The most important trait in all those jobs is to be able to listen,” he told the Irish Examiner in 2014.

[ Seán Rocks, presenter of RTÉ radio’s culture show Arena, dies aged 64Opens in new window ]

After producing and presenting documentaries, including the award-winning Soul of Ireland, he began presenting his new show at a time when the arts were slipping down RTÉ Radio 1’s list of priorities.

The station’s previous arts show, Rattlebag, aired in a primetime afternoon slot, but Arena went out at 7pm, when radio listenership precipitously falls off. Despite this unpromising situation, Rocks took to the role with aplomb. Alive to the sensibilities of his guests and to the nuances of the artforms he covered, he never talked down to his audience, instead inviting them to explore alongside him.

He was especially good when talking to writers, enjoying lively encounters with poets such as Paul Muldoon or the late Michael Longley, and novelists such as Kevin Barry, while he also, unsurprisingly, hit it off with actors such as Timothy Spall. A key ingredient to this consistent chemistry was Rocks’s natural good humour and self-deprecating sense of fun, which helped set guests at ease. (I speak from grateful experience.)

This characteristic also allowed him to gently prick the pretensions of contributors before they disappeared down theoretical dead ends.

Equally crucial to the success of Rocks’s long tenure was his steadfast commitment to the arts. “The arts are important because ultimately they give a richness to our culture which feeds into everything else,” he observed. He valued and respected those who worked as artists, and the feeling was reciprocated, as the heartfelt tributes paid to him on radio by John Banville and Barry eloquently attest.

In broadcasting terms, Rocks’s untimely death leaves Radio 1 reeling at a time when stability is at a premium and the station’s schedule is under scrutiny. His personality was so woven into the fabric of Arena that it’s hard to imagine the show without its signature host. (Rick O’Shea, a versatile broadcaster himself, has nonetheless done a good job as Arena’s stand-in presenter over the past week.)

But, of course, it’s the human loss that is much more profound, most painfully for Seán’s beloved wife, Catherine, and their two sons.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s arts world has lost one of its greatest champions, a broadcaster whose easy wit and big-hearted spirit belied a lifelong devotion to educating people about the richness of our culture.