The Irish Famine began with failure of the potato crop due to a fungus. There was a heavy dependence of the poorer sections of the population on the potato due to economic polices that had developed over the previous 50 years. The Irish population expanded in the early 19th century and the government policy of allowing the division of farms into smaller and smaller units to fascinate tax revenue was in the words of Irish statesman Daniel O'Connell "a recipe for disaster".

There was no real 'famine' in the sense that there was ample food in the county to feed the population but tons of fresh food were exported, sometime under British army protection, for overseas markets. Starving people who tried to attack the 'food carts' were arrested and some were hanged for the offense and many transported to Australia essentially as slaves.

From 1847 the crisis significantly deepened with the passage of the Poor Law Extension Act which stopped all British government aid to Ireland and put relief entirely on Irish landlords who were at that time going bankrupt. There was a policy of Laissez-Faire economics but sources from the time clearly show a prejudice towards the Irish and Ireland that can only be described as racist in tone. The British government adviser and economist Nassau Senior is recorded as wondering if a million Irish dead would be sufficient to solve the economic issues in Ireland. British Secretary of the Treasury Charles Trevelyan's report lays the blame on the Famine on Irish fecklessness and a sign from God that the Irish not following God's plan. It makes for chilling reading.

The reaction of the British Government to Ireland in this time of great need has long been viewed in Ireland as evidence that the Irish [fully integrated in the UK at the time] were second or third rate citizens who were abandoned by the government and left to starve.