Boris Johnson refuses calls for summit on violence in Northern Ireland

Irish government suggests talks after eight nights in which police have been attacked and cars torched

Boris Johnson's government is resisting growing calls to hold a special crisis summit with Dublin to address rising tensions in Northern Ireland - amid growing international anxiety about a return to sectarian violence.

The Observer has been told by senior sources that suggestions from Dublin to London that the crisis requires a high-level intergovernmental conference to help stabilise the situation have met with no enthusiasm on the British side.