The famine remains a controversial event in Irish history.
Debate and discussion on the British government's response to the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, the exportation of food crops and livestock, the subsequent large-scale starvation, and whether or not this constituted genocide, remains a historically and politically charged issue.

During the famine, Ireland produced enough food, flax, and wool to feed and clothe double its nine million people.
When Ireland had experienced a famine in 1782–83, ports were closed to keep Irish-grown food in Ireland to feed the Irish.
Local food prices promptly dropped.
Merchants lobbied against the export ban, but government in the 1780s overrode their protests.
There was no such export ban in the 1840s.
Some historians have argued that in this sense the famine was artificial, caused by the British government's choice not to stop exports.

Francis Boyle claimed that the government's actions violated sections (a), (b), and (c) of Article 2 of the CPPCG and constituted genocide in a legal opinion to the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education on 2 May 1996.
In 1996, the U.S. state of New Jersey included the famine in the "Holocaust and Genocide Curriculum" for its secondary schools.
The curriculum was pushed by various Irish American political groups and drafted by the librarian James Mullin.
Following criticism of the curriculum, the New Jersey Holocaust Commission requested statements from two academics that the Irish famine was genocide, which was eventually provided by law professors Charles E. Rice and Francis Boyle, who had not been previously known for studying Irish history.
They concluded that the British government deliberately pursued a race- and ethnicity-based policy aimed at destroying the Irish people and that the policy of mass starvation amounted to genocide per retrospective application of article 2 of the Hague Convention of 1948.

The claims were contested by Peter Gray, who concluded that UK government policy "was not a policy of deliberate genocide", but a dogmatic refusal to admit that the policy was wrong.
James S. Donnelly, Jr., wrote, "while genocide was not in fact committed, what happened ... had the look of genocide to a great many Irish."

Cecil Woodham-Smith claimed that while the export policy embittered the Irish, this did not implicate the policy in genocide, but rather in excessive parsimony obtuseness, short-sightedness, and ignorance.
Irish historian Cormac O' Grada rejects the term, stating that the English exhibited no desire to exterminate the Irish and that the challenges for providing relief were enormous.
W. D. Rubinstein also rejected the genocide claim.

Journalist Peter Duffy writes that "The government's crime, which deserves to blacken its name forever", was rooted "in the effort to regenerate Ireland" through "landlord-engineered replacement of tillage plots with grazing lands" that "took precedence over the obligation to provide food ... for its starving citizens.
It is little wonder that the policy looked to many people like genocide."
James S. Donnelly, Jr., a historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, wrote in his book, Landlord and Tenant in Nineteenth-century Ireland:
I would draw the following broad conclusion: at a fairly early stage of the Great Famine the government's abject failure to stop or even slow down the clearances (evictions) contributed in a major way to enshrining the idea of English state-sponsored genocide in Irish popular mind.
Or perhaps one should say in the Irish mind, for this was a notion that appealed to many educated and discriminating men and women, and not only to the revolutionary minority ... And it is also my contention that while genocide was not in fact committed, what happened during and as a result of the clearances had the look of genocide to a great many Irish.

Cormac Ó Gráda disagreed that the famine was genocide.
He argues that "genocide includes murderous intent, and it must be said that not even the most bigoted and racist commentators of the day sought the extermination of t
The famine remains a controversial event in Irish history. Debate and discussion on the British government's response to the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, the exportation of food crops and livestock, the subsequent large-scale starvation, and whether or not this constituted genocide, remains a historically and politically charged issue.
During the famine, Ireland produced enough food, flax, and wool to feed and clothe double its nine million people. When Ireland had experienced a famine in 1782–83, ports were closed to keep Irish-grown food in Ireland to feed the Irish. Local food prices promptly dropped. Merchants lobbied against the export ban, but government in the 1780s overrode their protests. There was no such export ban in the 1840s. Some historians have argued that in this sense the famine was artificial, caused by the British government's choice not to stop exports.
Francis Boyle claimed that the government's actions violated sections (a), (b), and (c) of Article 2 of the CPPCG and constituted genocide in a legal opinion to the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education on 2 May 1996. In 1996, the U.S. state of New Jersey included the famine in the "Holocaust and Genocide Curriculum" for its secondary schools. The curriculum was pushed by various Irish American political groups and drafted by the librarian James Mullin. Following criticism of the curriculum, the New Jersey Holocaust Commission requested statements from two academics that the Irish famine was genocide, which was eventually provided by law professors Charles E. Rice and Francis Boyle, who had not been previously known for studying Irish history. They concluded that the British government deliberately pursued a race- and ethnicity-based policy aimed at destroying the Irish people and that the policy of mass starvation amounted to genocide per retrospective application of article 2 of the Hague Convention of 1948. 
The claims were contested by Peter Gray, who concluded that UK government policy "was not a policy of deliberate genocide", but a dogmatic refusal to admit that the policy was wrong. James S. Donnelly, Jr., wrote, "while genocide was not in fact committed, what happened ... had the look of genocide to a great many Irish."
Cecil Woodham-Smith claimed that while the export policy embittered the Irish, this did not implicate the policy in genocide, but rather in excessive parsimony obtuseness, short-sightedness, and ignorance. Irish historian Cormac O' Grada rejects the term, stating that the English exhibited no desire to exterminate the Irish and that the challenges for providing relief were enormous. W. D. Rubinstein also rejected the genocide claim.
Journalist Peter Duffy writes that "The government's crime, which deserves to blacken its name forever", was rooted "in the effort to regenerate Ireland" through "landlord-engineered replacement of tillage plots with grazing lands" that "took precedence over the obligation to provide food ... for its starving citizens. It is little wonder that the policy looked to many people like genocide." James S. Donnelly, Jr., a historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, wrote in his book, Landlord and Tenant in Nineteenth-century Ireland:
I would draw the following broad conclusion: at a fairly early stage of the Great Famine the government's abject failure to stop or even slow down the clearances (evictions) contributed in a major way to enshrining the idea of English state-sponsored genocide in Irish popular mind. Or perhaps one should say in the Irish mind, for this was a notion that appealed to many educated and discriminating men and women, and not only to the revolutionary minority ... And it is also my contention that while genocide was not in fact committed, what happened during and as a result of the clearances had the look of genocide to a great many Irish.
Cormac Ó Gráda disagreed that the famine was genocide. He argues that "genocide includes murderous intent, and it must be said that not even the most bigoted and racist commentators of the day sought the extermination of t
Great Famine (Ireland)