Shane Lynch has been a supporter of ImagineAction since the project began

After three years of inspiring training and events for young people, the ImagineAction project in Northern Ireland gave its final performance this November. The 74 participants who have been involved throughout the project performed in Punch! The Musical, a story about a young boxer who overcomes several challenges in his life to achieve his full potential.

ImagineAction has been funded by Legacy Trust UK since it began in 2009 and is run by Beam Creative Network with the aim of using the Olympic traditions and values to encourage young people from sporting backgrounds to become involved in music, dance and drama. The project, which is based in County Tyrone, has been hugely successful both in terms of demand from participants and attendances at events.


Beam Creative Network has run workshops and master classes to help young people develop their musical and dramatic talents, working with both their own staff as well as the likes of Louis Walsh and Shane Lynch.

Following the project’s finale, Shane Lynch said: "It has been an honour to be involved in ImagineAction. I'd like to congratulate Legacy Trust UK for supporting a project that truly shows young people that it is possible to take part in both the arts and sport. It's great stuff – a real community project that has made a significant difference to a lot of young lives. Well done to Beam Creative Network and all the teenagers whose talents and new found performance skills will stay with them forever."

As a measure of the project’s success, well over a thousand people came to see Punch! at the Bardic Theatre in Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone from 10-13 November, a run which included three sell out performances.

Having already delivered such a successful project and worked with over 100 young people in the local area, Beam Creative Network have now been awarded further funding from the Legacy Trust UK Challenge Fund.

This will see the idea expanded to other regions across Northern Ireland with the launch of the ImagineAction Schools Challenge in 2012. Beam will travel to five primary schools in Donaghmore to write the scripts and songs in workshop sessions before editing these ideas into a finished production which will be taken to ten more schools throughout Northern Ireland. Further workshops will see these schools rehearsing the new works in a week before performing them for family, friends and also the children who wrote the songs and scripts.

This expansion of the project will give children in rural primary schools rare opportunities to be involved in the arts and also offer them the chance to develop a number of important skills. Following ImagineAction’s success in Co. Tyrone, this will build on its already valuable legacy by engaging with even more young people.