"Rather at odds with the fact that they actually did more than everybody else combined isn't it?"
Been there - done that
Ireland's fate in such circumstances was the direct responsibility of the British Empire, Peel's Government acknowledged that fact and made some attempts to alleviate the catastrophe.
The Russell administration abandoned that responsibility, dismantled the few, inadequate measures that Peel had installed and decided to give the market a free hand; they actually stated than nothing should be done to hinder the free market.
Their role wasn't just passive, but an extremely active one - continuing to ship food out of Ireland, which was already known as "England's Breadbasket", putting armed guards on the locked warehouses and providing military support for the evictions that had begun in 1847.
It's sole contribution to the crisis was to create a situation where the only solution to the crisis was to emigrate (stated policy) and set up assisted passage schemes
They deliberately set out to alter the economic and cultural structure of Ireland so it would no longer be the thorn in the side of the Empire that it had been for centuries - and they would have succeeded had it not been for the continuing opposition of 1867 and the Land League Wars, eventually leading to the War of Independence.
Whether the death toll was deliberate or just a spin-off of British action/inaction remains a moot point among historians, the fact that it was a result of it is part of the history they have documented - everything stated by the historians Numbnuts has put up says exactly that.
To say that the most wealthy and powerful Empire on the planet was not in a position to do anything about it is, as Christine Kinealy pointed out "nonsense":
"Fifthly, there is a persistent claim that the British government in the 1840s possessed neither the practical nor the political means to either close the ports or import additional foodstuffs to Ireland. This is nonsense"
You really should read what your friend has put up.
Another quote summing up Britain's 'inability' to honour its direct responsibility:
"Following the defeat of Napoleonic France in 1815, Britain enjoyed a century of almost unchallenged dominance and expanded its imperial holdings across the globe."
The gombeen men were a side effect - in no way a cause, and to blame them is the same as blaming Trevelyan - Ireland was Britain's responsibility and they delibarately abused that responsibility fot the 'good of Empire'.
Woodham-Smith described other types of exploitation - that of relief supplies being purchased by English and Irish merchants, deliberately shipped back and forth across the Irish Sea up to four times before they were unloaded, in order to manipulate the selling prices upward; prolonging the already extreme shortages - part of the 'free trade' that the Russell administration had pledged itself to.
Britain not only did nothing, but it manipulated that 'nothing' in order to gain political and economic capital out of the 'Great Famine'.
After it was over, they continued to support and actively assist the Landlords, Clements, Vandeleur, Stackpole... the English 'gombeen men', to evict the survivors, leading to revolts and permanent land warfare.
Jim Carroll