When the Great Irish Famine devastated communities across Ireland between 1845 and 1852, the British government faced an unprecedented crisis in relief administration. This thesis reveals how the choice between two contrasting intervention strategies significantly influenced relief outcomes and shaped long-term recovery trajectories. The thesis examines two unions that began the Famine on remarkably similar footing but experienced dramatically different outcomes. In Gort Union, County Galway, the Poor Law Commission dissolved the elected board of guardians entirely in February 1848, replacing them with government-appointed vice guardians who wielded absolute control until November 1849. This constituted a complete suspension of local governance during the crisis. Ballyshannon Union, County Donegal, by contrast, retained its elected board under the supervisory guidance of temporary Poor Law Inspector John S. Darcy from November 1847 to September 1848 - a collaborative that preserved local agency while introducing external expertise. The research addresses fundamental questions largely overlooked in Famine historiography: Why did the Poor Law Commission select radically different interventions for different unions? Who were the officials entrusted with life-and-death decisions over millions of starving people? How did administrative structures translate into actual relief outcomes on the ground? Employing prosopography, comparative analysis, and microhistory, this study reconstructs the first collective biography of these crucial, yet obscure, administrators while dissecting the operational mechanics of crisis governance. The findings in this thesis overturn conventional assumptions about Famine administration. Administrative competence and strategic approach - reactive versus proactive - mattered as much as financial resources in determining survival rates. Ballyshannon’s collaborative model, which balanced urgent relief demands with sustainable institutional development, generated superior long-term recovery compared to Gort’s authoritarian replacement approach. Through meticulous analysis of workhouse minute books, Poor Law Commission correspondence, and Quaker relief records, the thesis gives evidence of how administrative decisions made during the crisis shaped institutional capacity and community resilience for decades afterward.