Theresa May made a glaring mistake in her reference to Ireland in the official Brexit letter

In section 5 of her statement, Ms May writes:

"In particular, we must pay attention to the UK's unique relationship with the Republic of Ireland and the importance of the peace process in Northern Ireland. The Republic of Ireland is the only EU member state with a land border with the United Kingdom. We want to avoid a return to a hard border between our two countries, to be able to maintain the Common Travel Area between us, and to make sure that the UK's withdrawal from the EU does not harm the Republic of Ireland. We also have an important responsibility to make sure that nothing is done to jeopardise the peace process in Northern Ireland, and to continue to uphold the Belfast Agreement."

What the Prime Minister and those who created the letter failed to notice was that the "Republic of Ireland" is not the official title for the country, as recognised by the EU and the UN. It may well be the name used by the Irish football team, but the name of the state which is governed by Dáil Éireann is Ireland.

This didn't go unnoticed by those who responded to a tweet by the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Charlie Flanaghan, about the statement.

@CharlieFlanagan you might point out the official name of the state is "Ireland", recognised by EU and the UN, not Republic of Ireland.

— Noel Gavigan (@NCGav) March 29, 2017

And while it may only be a small, semantic discrepancy, the mistake is one of many instances where the UK government has overlooked the Irish/Northern Irish dimension during Brexit negotiations.

Outstanding issues to do with hard borders, trade agreements and supporting the peace process all lie unresolved. Let's hope that when the UK finally gets round to dealing with those things, they'll at least get the name right...