In "my" part of Ireland, which is the far south west of Cork,my family survived because they were lucky enough to have a good piece of land and they lived close to the sea. There are dreadful reports in the area of men being made to work on roads that started and went nowhere because the British land owners did not want them to think they got something for nothing.They were paid pennies which could not support a family. One man found collapsed in the townland my family came from had an autopsey which showed that he had had nothing to eat for days and his muscle was wasted away.
When families died there was no one to bury them.Some were eaten by the rats.
There is a huge pit in Skibbereen where no one knows for certain how many thousand are buried.
My grandfather born in 1864 always told my mother born 1918 that when they killed a pig the best piece of meat was to be taken to the neighbours. The neighbours did the same.Probably tradition which meant when you had little your neighbour would help you out.
Famine occurred. It was a disaster. The bit I can't cope with is the landed gentries attitude to the poor and starving. They were treated as disposable rubbish...read the accounts of the time.
I know things were bad elsewhere even in the UK but Ireland was worse because of the British .