Latest news with #Glenroe
Irish Daily Mirror
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
Heartbreak at RTE as popular presenter dies aged 63 after brief illness
Popular RTE presenter Sean Rocks has died at the age of 63 after a brief illness. Sean enjoyed a rich and varied career as an actor, appearing at renowned venues such as the Abbey, Peacock and Gate Theatres, and appearing in TV shows including The Bill, Glenroe, Fair City, Dear Sarah, and Go Now. He became best known as the host of Arena on RTE Radio 1, having first made his mark with several shows on Lyric FM starting in 2000. His work on the evening show Arena earned widespread praise, especially for his insightful interviews with notable authors like Salman Rushdie, Edna O'Brien and Roddy Doyle, as well as actors including Rupert Everett, Martin Sheen and Brendan Gleeson. RTE Director General Kevin Bakhurst expressed "enormous shock and sadness" at Sean's passing, recalling Sean's own words: "Seán said once: 'Radio is never about the presenter. It's about the person who is opposite you.'" He added: "Loyal listeners, especially to Sean's beloved and long-running Arena on RTE Radio 1, will recognise the man in that quote: modest yet learned; subtle yet probing; curious yet polite. The listener at home was always his focus. Not only is radio the poorer for his passing, but so too has Ireland lost one of its most passionate advocates for the arts, and one of its most informed and versatile voices. RTE's Sean Rocks (Image: Andres Poveda PHOTOGRAPHY LTD) "I want to extend my most sincere sympathies to Sean's beloved Catherine, his children Christian and Morgan, his friends, and his colleagues at this terrible time." Sean also contributed as a guest presenter, producer and writer on multiple RTE series. He won a Silver Medal at the New York Festival of Radio for the documentary Soul of Ireland, produced for BBC Radio 4. He was also honoured to MC the State Banquet during Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Ireland. RTE's Sean Rocks (Image: Tony Kinlan) RTE's Director of Audio Patricia Monahan said: "Sean's passion for radio and the arts was infectious and the curiosity with which he approached topics ranging from cinema to theatre and books to classical music was compelling to listen to. He was interested in everyone's point of view and had a great ability to command an audience's attention. He was never more at home than when he was on stage. "He was full of energy and ambition for the future and is a huge untimely loss to radio and RTE. He will be sorely missed by his RTE Radio 1 colleagues and his wider RTE family. Our thoughts are of course with his beloved, Catherine, children Christian and Morgan and his extended family and friends. As you take your final bow Sean, May you rest in peace." For more of the latest breaking news from the Irish Mirror check out our homepage by clicking here.
Irish Examiner
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Denis Lehane: Richard Harris exhibition recharged my batteries
Farming for me, was learned, not from fancy books or from the wise words of a Teagasc adviser. No. I learned my farming the hard way. I learned it from TV, the movies and idle chat after Mass on a Sunday morning. A lot more farming was learned while holding a pool cue down in Bealnamorrive pub on a Friday night, than was ever picked up in Moorepark. Call me old-fashioned, call me blind to the modern world, call me deaf to modern trends, but I think far too much emphasis is placed on classrooms. The most important lessons in life are usually learned in the quarest of places. Back in the 1970s, when farmers ruled the world, and when RTÉ had the good sense to broadcast classic rural soaps like 'The Riordans', I learned many things about the land. I learned that wise old farmers, like Tom Riordan, usually wore grey hats and spoke very slowly. And later on, from Glenroe, I learned that you didn't have to be a genius to be a farmer, or to get married to a fine woman like Biddy. In fact, all you really needed to do was say words like "Well holy God!" I also learned that Joe Lynch, who hailed from the heart of Cork City could pass for a farmer, if given a convincing limp, a few dirty eggs, and the right cap. Glenroe gave me a great grounding in farming and in life. But it was from Richard Harris and his portrayal of The Bull McCabe in the movie The Field that I learned the most of all. Jamie, Damian, and Jared Harris viewing an exhibit at the launch of 'From Dickie to Richard — Richard Harris: The Role of a Lifetime', at the Hunt Museum in Limerick. Picture: Alan Place Richard Harris should have received an Oscar for his efforts — or at the very least an all-star award. But alas, he received very little. And this was shabby treatment for a man in his finest hour. Harris was brilliant, we will never see his likes again. Anyhow, when a current exhibition opened recently in Limerick, dedicated to the great Harris, it was no surprise to find me biting at the bit to go. I was like a hungry suckler calf bawling for the pap long before the doors opened. And when they finally opened, I rushed in like a bullock galloping into a meadow of freshly-grown grass. I was in my element. To say I was excited about the exhibition would be an understatement. The Harris exhibition was better than any farm walk for me. Harris and the Bull McCabe are to farming what Pelé is to soccer, or Pavarotti is to fine dining. Granted, The Bull was a little rough around the edges, but sure, even in the finest paintings you will find a chip or two, if you look closely enough. The Bull could also be abrupt at the table, and of course, not forgetting the murder. Yerra The Bull was far from perfect. I won't deny that. But sure, who in farming is without his or her share of faults? Let him who is without sin cast the first stone into the transport box. What makes The Bull so special in farming is his passion for the land. It's as simple as that. It was a passion that overshadowed everything else. And Harris in The Field gave us this passion in spades. Farming without passion is like a tractor without diesel. You are going nowhere without it. You are a spluttering failure. And, while you need a lot of things to farm successfully, if you don't have a passion for the job, you are wasting your time. The Harris exhibition in the Hunt Museum in Limerick had me spellbound from the moment I entered the building. And when I returned here to my farm in Kilmichael, I tackled my pike and hitched up to my wheelbarrow with renewed vigour. I was ready once again for whatever the land could throw at me. Like a flat battery after getting a recharge, I was energised for farming and was more than ready to take on the field. 'From Dickie to Richard — Richard Harris: The Role of a Lifetime' continues at the Hunt Museum until November 16, 2025.
Irish Independent
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
RTÉ's Bláthnaid Treacy: ‘Anything could set me off – I was stressed out of my mind'
Bláthnaid Treacy was less than three months old when she landed one of the biggest acting roles in the country — the part of Biddy and Miley's daughter, Denise Byrne, in long-running and much-loved drama Glenroe.
Irish Examiner
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Culture That Made Me: Arena presenter Seán Rocks picks his touchstones
Seán Rocks grew up in Monaghan town. He has acted on stages around the world, including London's Royal Court Theatre. His screen credits include The Bill, Glenroe and Fair City. In 2000, he began presenting programmes on RTÉ Lyric FM. He has produced several radio documentaries, including Soul of Ireland, an award winner at the New York Festival of Radio. In 2009, he started anchoring Arena, RTÉ Radio 1's flagship arts programme, which airs weeknights, 7pm-8pm. See: The Sound of Music I was in a production of The Sound of Music in primary school. I played Rolf, the Nazi sympathiser. In one scene, I had to walk on stage carrying this telegram. At this stage, Captain von Trapp knew I had some dodgy background. I thought to myself, I know what will help this scene. I dropped the telegram just as Martin McKenna – who was playing Captain von Trapp – asked me, 'What do you want?' I heard from the wings my teacher saying, 'Ah, he's after dropping the telegram.' I wanted to shout, 'I dropped it on purpose!' I remember, as I exited, there was a round of applause. I thought, that's interesting. The Well of the Saints I remember the Irish Theatre Company came to Monaghan touring JM Synge's The Well of the Saints, a story about this old, blind couple who have this beautiful love for each other. Barry McGovern played this wandering friar. The belief in the play is that if you rub water from the well on your eyes, you'll see again. I was thinking, how's that going to work? Will they have a well with water in it? When it came to putting water in their eyes, the well was nothing more than an upturned light. They put their head into the light and that was how they showed water pouring over their eyes. My brain knew there was no water, but my emotions made me believe there was water and they could now see. It was incredible. It was an awakening. Boss Grady's Boys I remember early in my acting career going to see Sebastian Barry's play Boss Grady's Boys. It was a production at The Peacock. The lighting again was incredible. There was just these shafts of light and this story of these two brothers – Eamon Kelly was the simpler brother, and Jim Norton was the more sensible brother. I remember the sheer beauty of the relationship between the two of them and the emotional intensity of it. The Wake I was in Tom Murphy's The Wake at the Abbey in 1998. I played the all-singing, piano-playing priest Fr Billy. It was a great part. I had great fun with it. Music was a big part of my background growing up. We all played piano to a certain level. I played guitar. We all sang in choirs. Family parties would be singing songs, all of us around the piano, singing anything from Stephen Foster Victorian parlour stuff to folk things, to Simon & Garfunkel. Queen Freddie Mercury of Queen. The older brother of a friend at school had this amazing album collection. We'd be listening to his records in stereophonic glory. Queen became a big thing. I loved that Queen didn't use synthesizers – that every sound they made was made. Maybe I was a bit of a purist. We're more tolerant of electronic music nowadays. A lot of sounds in the Seventies were a bit kitsch. Led Zeppelin As a guitarist, I wasn't playing Led Zeppelin, apart from the unforgivable recurrence of the guitar riff at the beginning of Stairway to Heaven, which was de rigueur for any self-respecting 20-year-old who was playing guitar at a post college party. House of the Rising Sun was another staple. Now if I saw someone with a guitar at a house party, it would cause a shudder: 'Is that a guitar? Did he bring a guitar?' Tune-Yards I remember going to see the American artists Tune-Yards at Whelan's in Dublin many years ago. The lead singer was on Arena with me. I really liked the music. It was loops and pedals, very clever stuff. Some people would say it's too clever – that it's 'to be admired,' if I'm not misquoting one of our reviewers, 'rather than loved,' but I remember going to that gig, and the live experience was a whole different ball game, and brilliantly so. The Gloaming Another stand-out concert was The Gloaming. They are such a phenomenal group of players. Iarla Ó Lionáird is amazing, his facility with song. It was in the National Concert Hall. I remember thinking, this is extraordinary, I'm feeling it in the people around me. It's not that it was a beginning. Irish music has been alive and well for several hundred years, but it was part of a resurgence, a renewal happening. They were bringing other elements of music and genres into what they were doing. You had this mix of instruments. I remember the atmosphere at the gig, the air of expectation before it started. Janis Ian and Ralph McTell I've been spoiled. In January 2024, I was at Trad Fest doing a live outside broadcast. Sitting across the stage from me was Janis Ian and Ralph McTell, both of them holding their guitars. She sang, 'I learned the truth at seventeen'. He jammed along. He started singing The Streets of London and she jammed along. I'm thinking this is the best gig I've ever been at! They were playing music almost to each other, and I was getting to watch that a few feet away. Janelle Monáe janelle Monae. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty) I remember broadcasting at Electric Picnic, probably 2010. Janelle Monáe performed. She was really impressive. She walked off stage and across the field to where we were recording an interview. It was as if the air moved out of her way. People playing in those big arenas, if they don't have star quality they're going to disappear into nowhere. She had it. You could see it with her – that is star quality walking across there. Nineteen Eighty-Four I remember reading George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as a 17-year-old and in particular the appendix at the back for Newspeak – the Orwellian language of control, doublethink, people in charge imprisoning people for thought crimes, pulling people off the street because they weren't obeying the party. People who went to war were the Department of Peace. If the party said it's true, it was true whether it's true or not. How that has come to pass. We live in an era where you need to be discerning. Language is such a potent thing. Claire Keegan Claire Keegan. Claire Keegan's writing possesses such integrity. The stories she tells are so wonderfully condensed. Not a word too much. Never a melodrama, just this economic, potent, thought-through sentence after sentence. If I had to pick a contemporary writer, she stands out. My Left Foot I can still remember the opening sequence to My Left Foot – where he picks up the stylus of the record with his foot and puts it on the record. That's how the film started! I blubbered uncontrollably. It was an extraordinary moment.
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
No friend of man's best friend
Sir, - Hachiko, the famously faithful Japanese dog, has his statue in Shibuya Station, his story in schoolbooks, and, I believe, a film to his name ( An Irishman's Diary, May 21st ). Fido, his Italian counterpart, got tax exemption and national honour. Meanwhile, in Ireland, we never even named the sheepdog who was central to Dinny and Miley in Glenroe every Sunday night for years. It says something about national priorities - or perhaps our deeply ingrained modesty. Where other nations bronze their beasts, we barely remember ours. But that unnamed dog still rounded up more viewers than most RTÉ dramas today. Faithful, underpaid, and uncredited: truly the Irish way. – Yours, etc, READ MORE ENDA CULLEN, Armagh
