The Famine itself was, as has been pointed out, an unavoidable natural disaster.
What was far from 'natural' or in any way human were the mass evictions for non-payment of rent by English landlords - many of them from the property of the English landed gentry and nobility. These left many thousands of families to starve to death at the side of the roads or (when they were lucky) to die in filled to capacity because of lack of resources, staff or food or simply to die of untreated typhoid or cholera.
These evictions were more often than not followed by 'cabin tumblings', the deliberate destruction of homes and crops so the tenants could not return.
Often, these evictions took place in order to give the newly acquired homes and land to friends or loyal employees of the landlords - the history books are full of such cases - several songs drawn from real cases about it happening.
There are records (mentioned in Woodham-Smith's book) of relief ships crossing the Irish Sea three or four times without being unloaded in order to make profits for unscrupulous profiteers - with the full collusion of Government officials who nodded them through each time.
Locally (West Clare) people still talk about 'The Shilling Walls', built on the estate of a local landlord by the Famine Relief scheme - he was paid two shillings and sixpence per week to pay the workers, but only paid them one shilling and pocketed the rest (and got new walls built for free into the bargain).
There are thousands of reports of corruption on the part of officials and landlords, and of indifference on the part of the English Establishment.
The Government was well aware of what was going on - many of the worst culprits were members of The House of Lords (try Googling William Sydney Clements, 3rd Earl of Leitrim).
Even the church was not above inhuman behaviour.
We still have what is left of a "souper" school, which was run by Protestant churchmen who offered famine relief in the form of a daily bowl of soup only to the children whose families agreed to change their religion.
Had this corruption or at best, gross incompetence, taken place anywhere else in The British Isles heads would, quite rightly, have rolled - in a big way.
Some of the most comprehensive reports, and certainly some of the most powerfully evocative images came from 'The London Illustrated News', which sent reporters and sketch artists to capture information and artistic impressions from some of the worst-hit areas, notable Skibbereen, in West Cork.   
Interesting to see that Britain still has its share of 'Holocaust deniers'.
Jim Carroll