Wide spread low level manufacturing is no longer a first world nation need. Everyone is fixated on that like manufacturing is the only thing a low skilled worker can get a job in. There is a need for high quality manufacturing. But US law keeps manufacturers from seeing the US as friendly.
Ireland was actually producing and exporting enough food to feed the people. Because the Empire had teh century and 1/2 before outlawed Catholics from owning land (80% of Irelands population) most land was owned by british aristocracy who did not live there. They paid small wages to the tenets and charged in many cases steep fees to live on the property. Most of the production was exported to England and other place, the profits were retained by the absentee lord. Potatoes were the sustenance crop for the starving tenants, but a disease developed that began to kill off most of the crop. The landowners basically turned a blind eye to this and people starved-maybe a million people? Why did the landowners ignore what was going on? Some of it is for religious prejudice. Basically, kill off the Catholics. This is when the US saw large waves of Irish immigrants.