Loves

Food Boiled, fried, roasted, raw, chopped, diced, steamed, in a sandwich, not in a sandwich, on a plate, in a dish, it really doesn't matter. The corollary to that is it's best when you're having it with people you like.

Monaghan frost Wimpy east coasters don't know what frost is. I grew up in Monaghan and when I came to college in Dublin first, I used to love going home in the winter time. You'd get off the bus and you really would notice the difference in the temperature. The east coast is much milder. Monaghan frost is really white and really crisp.

Open fires Heat is grand but underfloor heating is least grand of all because you want to know where the heat is and go to it and sit beside it. Open fires are not just about heat, they're about something else – home, heart and all of that.

Radio This sounds like a cliché but I actually do love it. It's a different medium from any other medium. There's something about the voice in the bedroom with you or in the car with you or in the kitchen with you. Somehow you can be intimately involved with a conversation that's happening on radio and be cooking your dinner or be intimately involved with it and doing something else.

A really good book When you're reading it and you're half way through it and you don't want to finish it because you're enjoying it so much. But the problem is, the more you continue reading the more you getting towards the end of it, so it's sort of a loves/loathes type thing. The last one that really caught me in that way was Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture.

Loathes

Gender stereotypes And I hate the people who play into them even more. It's the idea that all men are emotionally thick and then you get a guy going, "Oh, I wouldn't know what that's like because I'm a man and I have no feelings." Or alternatively that all women are illogical and emotional and suddenly you get a woman saying, "I'm only doing that because I'm following my feelings."

Sentences that start with 'I don't want to say anything, but...' The person who starts that sentence usually goes on to assassinate your character over something you've done, or somebody else. It's not that they don't want to say anything, it's quite the opposite. They want to rip the ground from underneath somebody.

Deviousness It takes so much energy to do things sideways. I would find it exhausting. I find the direct route is so much better.

Bad service We have so much to learn from the States. You go into a shop there and ask, 'Do you have these shoes in black?' and you will never hear the phrase, 'Whatever's on the shelf'. I grew up in a family business and it was a small grocery shop in a small town and at that time, you knew your customers and you really did serve them.

Cattists People who are anti-cats. I have to admit that for a long time I might well have considered becoming a member of that club. We always had dogs growing up but about six years ago, I got my little baby cat. She may well be a dog trapped in a cat's body. She plays fetch with rolled up tinfoil, knows the sound of the car coming to the door and jumps up on the window when I come home. People who refer to cats only being out for themselves and totally selfish, clearly have not had a cat.

Seán Rocks presents 'Arena', RTÉ Radio 1's new entertainment and culture show, every Monday to Friday from 7.30pm