In a way, it was. The British government refused to engage in any direct relief. All it did was buy some corn (maize) in the United States, with plans to “throw it on the market” to reduce grain prices in Ireland if they got too high. Unfortunately, the corn was a very hard, dry variety which had to be boiled for a long time to make it edible. Not knowing this, many Irish bought it and suffered great pain from eating indigestible corn.

Other than that, the British government relied on market forces that did not work to end the famine.

To make matters worse, English owners of Irish land were allowed to evict Irish people who were unable to pay their rents, and to tear down their hovels. Thousands of hungry people were set on the road with nowhere to go.

The government pretty much stood by and watched as a million Irish people died of starvation.