Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, pp 77-78:

Coonan, Patrick Louis, Rt. Rev., V.G., Irish
Sydney Vicar General for Twenty Four Years
The photo of the youthful Patrick Louis, extracted from the tome The Third Australasian Catholic Congress (1909) is quite different from the physiog that the writer knew when sitting across the examination table at Manly College in the years 1931-4. (Youth has its dimples and old age its pimples). However, when the photo was taken the subject had already made his mark as the hardworking pastor of Forest Lodge, being destined to fill the post for 44 years. And would there be another cleric who has held the post of Vicar General for 24 years? Coonan was born in Ballintuber, County Kilkenny, on 23 February 1856. Priesthood studies were undergone at St. Kieran's Kilkenny—a seminary with which Cardinal Moran was closely associated as Bishop of Ossory in the early 1880s and in the 1870s. Ordination took place on 12 October 1879. Whether the subject was intended originally for the Adelaide Diocese is not clear, but he certainly spent at least three years there before coming to serve in Sydney. Was his transfer linked with his Kilkenny origin and seminary training, and the arrival of Moran in September 1884? Whatever ... Coonan was adm. at St. Mary's Sydney as from 1885. The duo — O'Haran and Coonan — were destined to be the Cardinal's "white-haired boys"; the former being appointed the Cardinal's Secretary in 1884, later taking on the dual role of Secretary and Adm. Forest Lodge was Coonan's reward for service of administration in 1891, and there he was to remain until his death on 22 July 1935 at the age of 79. When he came to the Lodge he introduced the Patrician Brothers to teach his Boys' School which had an enrolment in first years round the 100 mark. In his 44 year stay he had seen the number more than doubled. The Girls' and Infants Schools had shown a similar increase. A new church of St. Ita's Lyndhurst and probably a new presbytery at Forest Lodge, were constructed; while the number of assistant clergy increased from one to three. Coonan served well under Cardinal Moran and under Archbishop Kelly. In 1917 he was made a Monsignor, and in 1920 (for once at least) enjoyed a year's vacation in the County of birth. Hard to realise that the old hard-faced examiner who bowled me a few 'curly ones' dated back to pre-Manly days; and to the time of the Parkes Education Act when the expansion of the Catholic School system had scarcely begun! His mortal remains lie in Rookwood.
(Footprints, Vol. 2, No. 10)
Ref.: St. Mary's Archives, Sydney.