Pat was the elder by 15 minutes of a set of twins born on 21/03/1900 in Silver St Nenagh to bootmaker Thomas Starr and his wife Bridget White. Along with his twin Joseph, he had an elder sister, Margaret. By all accounts, Pat was a personable young man and well liked around the town and in helping his parents shoe business in Silver St. However, after one of too many beatings by the occupation forces for being abroad during a Crown enforced curfew, Pat decided to join the local branch (1st Brigade) of the North Tipp IRA. Unfortunately Pat wasn't accepted, being advised to return the following year and try again. His brother Joe was enlisted though.

Undetered as he was, Pat set off for Castleconnell where he met up with O.C. Sean Carroll of the Mid Limerick Brigade. Pat was accepted into the ranks although reportedly he did join under an assumed name, and soon began to make a reputation for himself as a brave and courageous volunteer. Pat would return home to Nenagh every so often to visit his family. 

-----

On the day of the ambush, IRA reports state that 127 of the East Limerick column and augmented by neighbouring coys were scheduled to ambush Crown forces at Shraharla. It had been decided that combined forces be used in Limerick engagements rather than relying on local companies and knowledge. This would relieve the pressure being placed on other county brigades and create a more unified and cohesive strategy. It would mean a more effective use of arms and personnel. However, no matter how logical this would appear on paper, in reality this would later lead to fragmented and divided and less effective fighting units as petty internecine rivalries surfaced between the represented districts with resentments regarding who was in charge of who. There was also the issue to contend with of known individuals only too willing to travel outside their Company areas to fight freelance without permission in other  districts.

------

The  target for the day was on the Cork/Limerick border with the intention of ambushing a Crown cycling patrol, who had been making a nuisance of themselves in the area. These were the Green Howards, an anti-papist regiment from Richmond in Yorkshire. These were led by an officer known as 'Old Shakey' because of nervous 'tics' and who was presumed to be mad. He was probably suffering from PTSD or Shellshock.

------

According to Ballyneety man Richard Power, who was present that day, the column were caught in open ground by a motorised patrol who happened on the IRA before the column had gotten into the 'kill' position. There was no cover as the British opened fire. The Howards were armed with machine guns and after they opened fire, three of the column lay as fatalities, one of two other wounded, Captain Paddy Casey was later captured by the British forces and following a drumhead court was executed the following day at Cork Detention Barracks. Pat Starr was one of the fatalaties killed on the slopes. The others were Pat Horan and Tim Hennessey. Another version related second hand by Edmund Tobin, suggests the Tans arrived in 9 lorries and two cars. The IRA report for the day states only 48 Crown personnel were involved. Liam Forde of the East Limerick Brigade recorded in his statement that there were seven lorries with 10 troops in each. In Daniel O'Shaugnessy's comprehensive statement, there were three lorry loads of Black & Tans who arrived via Darragh.

------

They Crown forces opened up a relentless volley of firing to the extent that Starr, Hennessey and Horan were initially trapped behind the school at Shraharla and unable to join their comrades. Two of the party took up positions at a nearby house, John Ronans, but they were hunted out again by the owners. The ground behind the trapped men was steep and offered no cover. They were pinned down by machinegun fire from an elevated position. Nevertheless, they returned fire for over an hour.  They would soon run out of ammunition. The Tans in the meantime sent a party to Shraharla Church to outflank the trapped IRA men and it was here they met their deaths. Breaking cover, Tim Hennessey was first to fall. Starr and Horan were then shot by a soldier concealed in the Church grounds. This was corroborated by Liam Forde  who stated....

...It was while crossing here that two outstanding soldiers Paddy Starr and James Horan were killed

------

Blame would later be attached to the unpreparedness and lateness of the positioning of the men, the fragmentation and dispersal of the column and the accusation that some of those involved never even fired a shot. Shaughnessy goes on to say that there were more shots fired to recover four dead bodies at nearby Lakelly than were used to try and help the trapped men at Shraharla.

------

In a statement later made by his father Thomas Starr, Pat was supposedly shot in the right ankle and was loaded onto a truck bound for Fermoy Military Hospital. However due to ill treatment during transportation and loss of blood, Pat was dead upon arrival.

 

Pat would later be buried as 'unknown' in Kilcrumper Churchyard. The body was enclosed in an oak coffin, which had a glass panel, through which the Pat's faces could be seen in the hope that someone would recognise him and inform his family. A large number of people viewed the body as it lay in the Mortuary on Ascension Thursday. According to the Cork Examiner of 07/05/1921....

"Despite a heavy downpour of rain, the funeral procession that evening at about 5 p.m. to Kilcrumper cemetery outside Fermoy was at first ‘of imposing dimensions’—until the military at the bridge over the Blackwater from Pearse Square intervened and limited the cortege to forty persons. The crowd complied with the order, and the much smaller procession took the flag-drapped coffins to the Republican Plot at Kilcrumper......

Thomas Starr didn't get to hear of the death of his son until August 1921. The Crown court of enquiry on 04/05/1921 decided that because of his babyish looks, Pat could be no more than 17. He had actually turned 21 in March. On 02/11/1921 Pats remains were re-interred in Tyone Graveyard in Nenagh. In later years there would be commemoration ceremonies held at Tyone graveyard in Pat's honour.

Timothy Hennessy from Kilonan, Tipperary, who was captured at Shraharla and would later die of his wounds at the hospital in Victoria Barracks, Cork on 17/05/1921

Tyone Headstone