STARBUCKS IRELAND HAS reiterated its apology for incorrectly posting a tweet which encouraged its followers and customers to “shows us what makes you proud to be British”.

The coffee giant caused uproar among some Irish Twitter users this afternoon when it tweeted: “Happy hour is on! Show us what makes you proud to be British for a chance to win. Don’t forget to tag #MyFrappuccino”.

In a statement this evening, Starbucks said it hoped that all its customers and followers will forgive its mistake.

The Twitter faux pas quickly started trending in Ireland and even caught the attention of MSNBC.com in the US which posted a story entitled: ‘Starbucks British tweet provokes Irish ire’.

The story told about how the Irish press were “up in arms” and quoted a brand marketing expert who suggested it could damage the company’s reputation in the Irish market.

With it being the Diamond Jubilee holiday in the UK it took nearly four hours until an apologetic tweet was posted saying that the original tweet had been “erroneously posted”.

In a follow up statement to TheJournal.ie this evening, the American coffee giant, which has 17 stores in Ireland, said:

First and foremost we apologise to our Irish customers for the mistake made on Twitter this afternoon.

The Tweet, which was only meant to be sent to our British Twitter followers as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, was erroneously posted to our Irish Twitter page.

We apologise to all our customers and followers on Twitter in Ireland and hope that they will forgive our mistake.

However the now infamous faux pas tweet is still live on the coffee chain’s Twitter page at the time of writing:

EARLIER: Starbucks apologises for ‘British’ tweet to Irish followers