The National:

SAOIRSE Ronan and Mary, Queen of Scots – truly "the spirit of Great Britain".

Well, that's according to the cover of February's Harper's Bazaar, at least.

Social media users have been left baffled by the big, bold message at the bottom: "The spirit of Great Britain – courageous, creative & open to the world... together we are strong." 

This confusion is mainly due to the juxtaposition with Ronan, who is most certainly not British. She was born in New York to two parents from Dublin, and moved back to Ireland at three.

One of the reasons for her interview, too, is to promote her new movie. "Saoirse Ronan on being Mary, Queen of Scots", it trails.

Again, Mary Queen of Scots appearing alongside "the spirit of Great Britain" is quite the contrast. Scotland wasn't even part of Britain during her reign.

We can always sympathise with the risks of having your front page misinterpreted on social media, and that was probably the case here.

It likely refers to a story about Brexit also in this edition, perhaps from comments made by Ronan ... but given the prominence of the Irish actress and the "spirit of Great Britain" words – and the colour scheme – the confusion is understandable.

She probably wouldn't be too happy with the mix-up, either. Speaking to the Irish Times last year about being misidentified as British, she said: "Well, I’m not. So I always correct them. I am proud of where I come from. I am proud of the work we’ve done. We can now stand in our own right as film-makers and actors. But, yeah, I do truly love it when people get so protective. That makes me smile.”

Twitter users made their feelings known too.

The Bazaar team hasn't yet commented on the confusion.