Paul,
As you are probably aware, there were two main Star(r) family branches in Ireland; a north branch (Co. Cavan and north of there) and a southern branch who seemed to have been very much present in North Tipperary and East Galway; As far as I can make out, they seem to have always lived quite close to the lake, Lough Derg - a fairly big, long lake. We know for sure that many of the Northern Star(r)s were Quakers and emigrated from there to USA. As far as I can make out, those Star(r)s had their roots in the border area between Devon and Somerset in England and at least some of them were adventurers in Cromwells army. That doesn't mean that all Star(r)s in Ireland came via that route, as, it is important to note that a lot of Star(r)s were Quakers and could have been here as missionaries.
The earliest record I can find of a Star(r) in the area to which you refer, was, Will Star of Ballingarry; only a few miles from Kilbarron, in 1665 & 1667. (There are several Ballingarrys; this Ballingarry is the one which is not too far from Birr and Borrisokane).
It is interesting that you refer to Starr /Egan association - I would like to see the record about that, please. Would you be in a position to share your intelligence around that please? - I am trying to trace a Starr by going back through the records from 1900; the trail goes cold around 1828 - a missing parish record book,(Nenagh RC Parish) quite possibly the reason. Your Egan connection might be an important linkage between Nenagh and Kilbarron / Terryglass.
From Ballingarry it is a short hop to Portumna - there is a nucleus of Starrs there;
It is even closer to the lakeshore at Terryglass and KIlbarron, and, thereafter, a large concentration in the Portroe / Killaloe area, and, finally, to Nenagh which has a few strands also. With the state of the records, it is very hard to know, did the name move up the lake from Killaloe, or, did it move down the lake from Kilbarron. The only thing I can say is, the earliest clear record of a Star in the region is Will.
After Will Star, there are limited records, however, you will find, a Jeremiah (aka Darby) Starr mentioned in a report as having been flogged cruelly while serving as a Royal Marine in the early 1800's - he subsequently died (courageously) at the battle of Talavera in 1809. He was from Kilmastulla, which is South West of Nenagh, close to the lake, near to Killaloe. I have thought for a long time that, a good strategy might be to trace Jeremiah's / Darby Star(r)s as the name seems to be kept from generationt to generation (as incidentally does WIlliam and John) in this region.
While, I am not sure what religion Will Star (1665) was, it seems that all of these Tipperary Star(r)s were Roman Catholic. I am refreshing my research; I think that Will (Ballingarry) might have been a Quaker. As you probably know, a lot of Starr Quakers emigrated from Ireland to America in the late 17th or early 18th centuries. Being a Quaker, does it also link the Tipperary Starrs to the Northern (Cavan) Starrs? As far as I can ascertain, relations were good between the Quakers and Catholics, it does not seem too unreasonable to think that,after the emigration of many Starr Quakers, maybe the Stars who remained married into Catholic families and so the religion changed. From looking at parish records from the early 19th century, mixed religion marriages were very common.
Talking of William and John; there is another very interesting family which are the Starr brothers of Shannon Grove, Ardcanny,Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, one of whom (William) was master of a "Provintial" School there in 1766; both of the brothers were prosperous, landed and living in large, comfortable houses. Both were definitively protestant - I have no idea how they got there or where they went; William, seems to have only daughters (two), the second, (John, Mount Pleasant, Ardcanny) seems to have had two children but I can find no trace of them beyond that generation. Interesting that the eldest of that family is William, it caused me to ask, were they maybe a Protestant branch of Will of Ballingarry. Interesting side note on John Star of Mountpleasant; he was in a militia set up for the protection of Protestants in Limerick in the late 1800's.
Finally to Nenagh - there are a few (three?) Starr family branches there - clearly some of them are of the Kilmastulla (Jermemiah / Darby) line but it has so far been impossible for me to trace them back to either Portroe or Kilmastulla. It is very complicated as there are so many similarities of names between the men, it is almost impenetrable, however, the good thing is, the Jeremiah/Darby's seem quite distinct - you might get lucky.
Please let me know if you are interested to catch up real-time and discuss what records we all have, or, what conclusions we are close to and maybe we can close a loop.
Tim
