According to "The Great Hunger" main source of assistance during the years 1846 to 1851 was the British Government, the second largest contributer was "The Society of Friends" (Quakers) in Britain.

Ard's figures are way off, and not all died, yearly figure without famine, before the blight was 250,000 to 300,000 dead from malnution. As Keith has pointed out even with all the resources at our disposal in modern times people die in natural disasters. The one I recall most vividly was Ethiopia in 1985. With the entire world mobilised to help, with fast modern ships, ports with fast modern unloading facilities, aircraft, helicopters and trucks, hundreds of thousands died every day.

Now compare that to the conditions that prevailed on west coast of Ireland in the mid-1800's - bad roads, only horse drawn transport, very few harbours, sailing ships, labour intensive and time consuming unloading, distribution alone must have been a nightmare.