Peace has to be won every day, says Sir Kenneth Branagh

Missiles and fireworks being thrown at police on Lanark Way (Brian Lawless/PA)

Sir Kenneth Branagh has said that peace in Northern Ireland “has to be won every day”.

The Belfast-born actor was speaking at the premiere of his new film in the city, which was inspired by his childhood.

Just 24 hours before the premiere, there were violent scenes on both sides of a peace wall in west Belfast following a rally against the Northern Ireland Protocol as tensions continue to simmer over post-Brexit arrangements.

A 12-year-old and a 15-year-old boy were arrested after a group of up to 100 youths attacked police.

Sir Kenneth’s film Belfast, set in the late 1960s at the start of the Troubles, includes the violence then as a backdrop, and the impact it had.

Kenneth Branagh attending the Irish premiere of film Belfast at the Waterfront Hall (Brian Lawless/PA)

Sir Kenneth told PA: “In the film I think (we) inevitably express the fragility of these things.

“The film starts with this, for me what 50 years on is still astonishing, how a sense of security and settleness changed like that, and last night in this city, there was a little explosion of that, that reminds us that peace has to be won every day.”