Although scholarship continues to ascribe some culpability to the British--for instance, the British did contribute to the Irish dependence on potatoes--most historians emphasize the famine was primarily a natural disaster, and conclude that British inaction was hardly part of a deliberate plan.
General consensus is that the potato famine was caused by a natural disaster.
The bairro (district), in fact a legacy of the Moors, is a charming labyrinth of crooked streets, cobbled alleyways, decaying old houses and palaces, fish stalls, and fado music clubs.