British government response was inadequate, possibly neglectful, even inept. Hamstrung by an ideological commitment to free trade policies and, sometimes, a callous view of the Irish. But it was not nonexistent. Three million people were fed at soup kitchens in 1847, and 8 million pounds (in income value equivalent to 9.6 Billion today) was spent on government relief, with more collected privately (not all from Britain). Queen Victoria was the largest single donator to the relief with a 2000 pound (2.5 million today) donation and two "Queens letters" calling for aid for Ireland that between them raised 200,000 pounds (240 million).
Let it not be said that Britain did enough to relieve Ireland in the famine, but to say they did nothing is not accurate. Nor indeed is it really relevant to the Irish war of independence,