checkout: Ship to Different Address how to disable default country selection

We have an Ireland based woocommerce store but have a problem when a UK customer enters a UK billing address but is using a different shipping address.

We have set the Woocommerce Shipping option located in “Shipping > Shipping Options > Shipping Destination” to “Default to billing address”

However, when a UK customer enters a UK billing address and want to select a different billing address, it is defaulting to “Republic of Ireland”. Some Customers are not realising this, and enter a UK address with the shipping country still set to “Republic of Ireland”. See attached screenshot https://imgur.com/wpEkeZJ

Question:
1. How do we disable a default country selection for “Ship to a Different Address” to ensure that a customer selects the right country?

2. Or if 1 is not possible, how do we have the default country for the shipping address to default to be the same as the billing address?

3. I have also noticed that when the shipping destination country is set to “Republic of Ireland” The “country” is not part if the shipping address at checkout order confirmation page or in the order email to the store owner & Customer. Is there a way to always have the shipping destination country show in the shipping address?

### WordPress Environment ###

Home URL: https://stabledoorpottery.com
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royal/woocommerce/cart/cart-empty.php
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royal/woocommerce/cart/mini-cart.php
royal/woocommerce/checkout/form-billing.php
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royal/woocommerce/checkout/form-shipping.php
royal/woocommerce/content-product.php
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royal/woocommerce/loop/add-to-cart.php
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royal/woocommerce/loop/no-products-found.php
royal/woocommerce/loop/pagination.php
royal/woocommerce/loop/sale-flash.php
royal/woocommerce/myaccount/form-edit-address.php
royal/woocommerce/myaccount/form-login.php
royal/woocommerce/myaccount/my-address.php
royal/woocommerce/myaccount/my-orders.php
royal/woocommerce/order/order-details.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/add-to-cart/simple.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/product-image.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/product-thumbnails.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/related.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/sale-flash.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/short-description.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/tabs/tabs.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product/up-sells.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product-reviews.php
royal/woocommerce/single-product.php

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