We spent a lot of time discussing what might come out of last week's election on previous episodes of red lines,

and in the main we didn't do too badly at all in highlighting the main personalities and potential outcomes to look out for.

There were still some surprises, of course, and the political landscape has well and truly changed in some key respects.

So, what are the lessons to learn and how does

what just happened shape what happens next? David? I think welcome to the three-party states.

So the DUP Sinn Féin and Alliance Party, that is the new political equilibrium as the

Australianus and the SDLP have fallen back.

Ben?

I think that that is about right and I think that that's a difficult scenario for unionists

because unionists are themselves split three ways, but the representation of unionism

is dominated by one party.

So that is a tricky thing for unionism to navigate,

apart from anything else,

to know what the best way it is to respond to events going forward.

Seanine.

I think David is on the money, as always.

And it is the election, yes, of Sinn Féin,

having the biggest nationalist voice,

but it is also very much the alliance surged and then being the very dominant third party.

Well, a few opening thoughts to get us thinking from today's guests, Red Lines, regular David McCann, the newsletters editor Ben Lurie and the Irish Times New Northern reporter, Seanine Graham.

And we'll be hearing in a bit from our political correspondent Jane McCormick

who's been keeping across the latest developments.

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