Two weeks to go to the local council election

and in this week's Red Lines we're looking at the challenges

facing nationalism on May the 18th.

We discussed unionism last week and next week

we'll focus on the issues confronting the other parties.

But today we're going to look in some detail

at how Sinn Féin and the SDLP in particular

could do in the contest to fill those 462 seats across our 11 council areas.

And with me, to talk through some of the key issues are Dr David McCann, the deputy editor of Slugger O'Toole, the political reporter for Belfast Live, Brendan Hughes, and our political correspondent Jane McCormack.

Welcome to all of you, David.

What do you see as the big

issues for nationalism on May the 18th? Ultimately, it's going to start with Sinn Féin. Shinfein will be

looking to become the largest party of local government overall. They've come into this election with

105 councillors in total. They scored 23.2% of the vote, which was down from 2014.

They were down just under a percentage point.

So they'll be looking to overtake the DUP and broaden their base because they didn't

have a very good election in 2019.

Their vote chair went down.

They didn't gain any councillor's net.

They actually fell black in some areas.

So they'll be looking to really pick up seats really across the piece.

They're targeting gains.

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