Saint Patrick for Ireland is a Caroline era stage play, written by James Shirley and first published in 1640. It is notable as an early development in Irish theatre. The play was written and performed during Shirley's stay in Dublin in the years 1637–40. Shirley, one of the most prominent and successful London playwrights of the previous decade, moved to Dublin during the long closure of the London theatres, from May 1636 to October 1637, due to an epidemic of bubonic plague. St. Patrick for Ireland was clearly written specifically for Shirley's new Dublin audience; it was performed in the autumn of 1639, at the Werburgh Street Theatre in Dublin, "the first Irish playhouse." There is no record of a London performance in Shirley's era...or later.