Ireland "had once been" and "still was" a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. It had always been governed by English law and subject to the various laws of Parliament of the United Kingdom.
"Had once been" referred to the Stuart dynasty, the first royal house to successfully rule the Kingdom of Scotland, the Kingdom of England, and the Kingdom of Ireland across the British Isles, though its rule had in fact been rather unstable.
"Still was" referred to the House of Hanover. After Ireland was incorporated into Britain in 1801, the Kingdom of Great Britain was reunited.
Before the union, Ireland still had tariff protections. Afterward, it had even less protection. Ireland would be reduced completely to a "vegetable garden," supplying agricultural products to England.
When the Great Famine broke out in Ireland, the British government had considered work relief as well. Unfortunately, the region lacked the necessary infrastructure, a problem accumulated through decades of economic exploitation.
Wheat was not only the staple food of the French, but also of the British and Irish. Bonaparte could not possibly scrape together 1.2 billion francs to fulfill Lan Zhi's vision all at once, but anyone who saw the mountains of grain piled up at the docks, along with laborers carrying sacks like ants, would doubt whether France truly faced a food shortage.
Napoleoni's cavalry might not have been able to cross the English Channel, but British commoners could come to France. Shiploads of wheat were exchanged for Bordeaux wine from France.
Britain had vineyards as well, but none as good as France's. In the past, Britain had needed to import sherry and Porto wine from Portugal if it wanted to drink wine. When Anglo-French rivalry began in the seventeenth century, France barred Bordeaux wine from being exported to Britain,