Rishi Sunak to mark Good Friday Agreement with praise for young people

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will pay tribute to the contribution young people have made to peace when he returns to Northern Ireland this week.

He will take part in events to mark 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement.

Among those events will be a gala dinner to honour those who signed the 1998 deal and the "remarkable" young people continuing the peace efforts.

Ahead of his latest trip, Mr Sunak said he was due to meet some of the "leading architects" behind the peace agreement.

He will acknowledge their "courage, imagination and perseverance" when he gives the closing speech at a Queen's University Belfast conference about the Good Friday Agreement.

"It is a tribute to the 1998 agreement that we also see a younger generation of inspirational people across Northern Ireland today," said on Sunday.

"Those who volunteer time and effort to actively make their communities stronger."

He said those young people had worked to "heal the wounds of a dark and difficult past" after those before them had set the "groundwork for a better future".

Queen's University is hosting a conference featuring speeches and panel discussions from former and current political leaders over three days, beginning on Monday.

Former US President Bill Clinton and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who both arrived in Belfast this weekend, are among those taking part in the events.