The man in charge of the British response to the great hunger was Charles Trevelyan. He famously said of the Irish "[The Famine] is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful, and rebellious country; an indolent and un-self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God's providence."
The British actively exported grains meats and other food leaving the local population to starve.
It was a famine only because they made it one.