Throughout the entire period of the Famine, Ireland was exporting enormous quantities of food.
In the magazine History Ireland (1997, issue 5, pp.
 32–36), Christine Kinealy, a Great Hunger scholar, lecturer, and Drew University professor, relates her findings: Almost 4,000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women, and children died of starvation and related diseases.
She also writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon, and ham actually increased during the Famine.
This food was shipped from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland, the ports of the west coast.
A wide variety of commodities left Ireland during 1847, including peas, beans, onions, rabbits, fish, oysters, lard, honey, tongues, and seed.

Writing in 1849, English poet and social reformer Ebenezer Jones wrote that "In the year A.D. 1846, there were exported from Ireland, 3,266,193 quarters of wheat, barley and oats, besides flour, beans, peas, and rye; 186,483 cattle, 6,363 calves, 259,257 sheep, 180,827 swine; (food, that is, in the shape of meat and bread, for about one half of the Irish population), and yet this very year of A.D. 1846 was pre-eminently, owing to a land monopoly, the famine year for the Irish people."
Butter was shipped in firkins, each one holding 9 imperial gallons; 41 litres.
From January-September 1847, 822,681 imperial gallons (3,739,980 litres) of butter was exported to England from Ireland during nine months of the worst year of the Famine.
The problem in Ireland was not lack of food, which was plentiful, but the price of it, which was beyond the reach of the poor.

The historian Cecil Woodham-Smith wrote in The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849 that no issue has provoked so much anger and embittered relations between England and Ireland "as the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation".
John Ranelagh writes that Ireland remained a net exporter of food throughout most of the five-year famine.
While in addition to the maize imports, four times as much wheat was imported into Ireland at the height of the famine as exported, much of the imported wheat was used as livestock feed.
Woodham-Smith added that provision via the Poor law union workhouses by the Act of 1838 had to be paid by rates levied on the local property owners, and in areas where the famine was worst the tenants could not pay their rents to enable landlords to fund the rates and therefore the workhouses.
Only by selling food, some of which would inevitably be exported, could a "virtuous circle" be created whereby the rents and rates would be paid, and the workhouses funded.
Relief through the workhouse system was simply overwhelmed by the enormous scale and duration of the famine.
Throughout the entire period of the Famine, Ireland was exporting enormous quantities of food. In the magazine History Ireland (1997, issue 5, pp. 32–36), Christine Kinealy, a Great Hunger scholar, lecturer, and Drew University professor, relates her findings: Almost 4,000 vessels carried food from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, and London during 1847, when 400,000 Irish men, women, and children died of starvation and related diseases. She also writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon, and ham actually increased during the Famine. This food was shipped from the most famine-stricken parts of Ireland, the ports of the west coast. A wide variety of commodities left Ireland during 1847, including peas, beans, onions, rabbits, fish, oysters, lard, honey, tongues, and seed.
Writing in 1849, English poet and social reformer Ebenezer Jones wrote that "In the year A.D. 1846, there were exported from Ireland, 3,266,193 quarters of wheat, barley and oats, besides flour, beans, peas, and rye; 186,483 cattle, 6,363 calves, 259,257 sheep, 180,827 swine; (food, that is, in the shape of meat and bread, for about one half of the Irish population), and yet this very year of A.D. 1846 was pre-eminently, owing to a land monopoly, the famine year for the Irish people." Butter was shipped in firkins, each one holding 9 imperial gallons; 41 litres. From January-September 1847, 822,681 imperial gallons (3,739,980 litres) of butter was exported to England from Ireland during nine months of the worst year of the Famine. The problem in Ireland was not lack of food, which was plentiful, but the price of it, which was beyond the reach of the poor.
The historian Cecil Woodham-Smith wrote in The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849 that no issue has provoked so much anger and embittered relations between England and Ireland "as the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation". John Ranelagh writes that Ireland remained a net exporter of food throughout most of the five-year famine. While in addition to the maize imports, four times as much wheat was imported into Ireland at the height of the famine as exported, much of the imported wheat was used as livestock feed. Woodham-Smith added that provision via the Poor law union workhouses by the Act of 1838 had to be paid by rates levied on the local property owners, and in areas where the famine was worst the tenants could not pay their rents to enable landlords to fund the rates and therefore the workhouses. Only by selling food, some of which would inevitably be exported, could a "virtuous circle" be created whereby the rents and rates would be paid, and the workhouses funded. Relief through the workhouse system was simply overwhelmed by the enormous scale and duration of the famine.
Great Famine (Ireland)