Westboro Baptist Church flag mistake
Westboro Baptist church reversed the colours of Ireland's flag, turning it into the Côte d'Ivoire's flag, while protesting the success of the "Yes" vote in the Ireland's equal marriage referendum. Westboro Baptist Church/Twitter

The Westboro Baptist Church has inadvertently declared its hatred of the Ivory Coast, after printing the Irish flag backwards on their posters.

The controversial religious group released a video which featured members of the religious group attempting to perform an Irish jig on an Irish flag to a song about Ireland going to hell.

The video was posted online after the historic yes vote in the Irish gay marriage referendum, which made Ireland the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage by a popular vote.

Further postings feature signs which say "God Hates Ireland" superimposed on a flag. Unfortunately, the flag has the colours in reverse order: orange, white and green – which is the flag of the Ivory Coast.

Westboro Irish flag mistake
Twitter response to Westboro's mistake Twitter

The US Christian fundamentalist church, in Topeka, Kansas, is notorious for outspoken criticism of individuals and groups it doesn't agree with.

In particular it is infamous for its openly homophobic views. Its members have picketed the funerals of gay US soldiers who had died in Afghanistan, while its website's url is godhatesfags.com.

After the death of actor Robin Williams the church announced it would protest at his funeral and denounced him as a "fag pimp" for his support for gay rights.

The response in the Irish press is of wry amusement. Of the church's disgust with Ireland, the Irish Examiner says: "we should really take it as a compliment". The response on social media was much less restrained.

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