Is it true that the British continued to export food from Ireland for their own economic gain? Did this play into the hate that the Irish developed for the British?
With regards to the first claim; yes, the British government did not disallow the export of food from Ireland during the famine. However, the common claims (especially by early Irish nationalist historians, among them John Mitchell) that Ireland exported more food than it imported has been strongly challenged over the years, and (assuming I'm not mixing my sources) Cormac O Grada raises sufficient statistical evidence that Ireland was a net importer of food during the famine years. Whether the food exported during the initial stages of the famine would have made a significant impact is up for debate, but on the whole, Ireland brought in more food than it shipped out. With regards to how it impacted the Irish view of the British I'm less qualified to say, but it did have a significant impact on the perspective of the Irish-American (and Irish-Canadian) diaspora, crystallizing memories of British abuse in segments of the population. Edit: poor wording on my part concerning who was doing the exporting. Cormac O Grada, Black '47 and Beyond: the Great Irish Famine in History, Economy and Memory. Christine Kinealy, This Great Calamity: the Irish Famine 1845-1852. Mary E. Daly, The Famine in Ireland.