St Patrick's parish extended from Spring Hill, through Fortitude Valley to Newstead, Teneriffe and New Farm.

O'Quinn transposed to Queensland, Ireland's Bishop Cullen's philosophy that new churches and ecclesiastical institutions should be expensive and Gothic, symbolising the new age of Irish Roman Catholicism.

[1] The Morgan Street site, occupied by Magill's Paragon Nursery in the 1870s, was acquired by church trustees, including Bishop O'Quinn, c. 1880.

Constructed of local porphyry and dressed with Murphys Creek sandstone, St Patrick's was completed in 1882 at an estimated cost of £6,000.

The bell of patent cast steel, manufactured by Vicker, Son & Co. Ltd of Sheffield, England, was a gift from Fortitude Valley parishioner Thomas Reedy.

Also installed were a timber pulpit; side altars of Oamaru stone, sculpted by John Petrie & Son of Brisbane; and, in the eastern wall, a large stained glass window imported from Lyons in France.

It attracts a large Sunday Mass congregation from the wider Brisbane Catholic community, and is popular for weddings and baptisms.

[1] St Patrick's Church is a substantial Gothic-influenced stone building centrally sited on an interior block accessed via Berwick and Morgan Streets.

Its broad nave and aisles are expressed as three parapeted gables to the north-eastern principal elevation, following the line of three steeply pitched corrugated iron roofs.

To the south-west, the nave extends past the aisles, forming a projecting chancel with a vestry attached in the south-western corner.

[1] The coursed rubble stonework is dressed with sandstone to the hood mouldings, cornice, crosses and window tracery.

[1] The church interior is impressive; the nave is separated from the aisles by octagonal columns supporting pointed arches.

A stepped timber choir and organ loft is located at the other end of the church; it is supported by two colonnettes (thin columns), and is accessed by stone spiral stairs enclosed by a rendered brick wall.

The church also contains some fine furnishings including cedar pews decorated with gothic motifs and fretwork, a marble baptismal font, and an ornamental holy water stand.

The site also contains newer school buildings which link to the church via a walkway abutting the western vestry entrance.