George Lowe's 61st-minute try proved crucial in a scrappy game that failed to live up to the spectacle hoped for by the bumper crowd of 74,212 at Twickenham.
Nick Evans kicked seven penalties and a conversion for Harlequins while all the London Irish points came from the boot of Chris Malone.
For the Exiles it was an eighth straight defeat in all competitions, while victory for Quins lifts them to sixth and left O'Shea in positive mood.
"From our point of view, we definitely needed that win more than they did," he stated afterwards. "Between third and seventh there are only seven points. It is tight.
"If we had lost there would have been a 10-11 point gap, which would have been too much.
"We are in the mix in the Amlin, the LV and I think we have put ourselves in the mix today in the Premiership with that win.
"This win allows us the chance to get into the top four and we have a lot of home games coming up. That was a home game for us today and it is important we win our home games.
"A loss after the way we played against Saracens would have been hard to take but there is more to come from us.
"We can play a lot better. In our last nine games we have won six, drawn one and lost two - and I don't think we are playing as well as we can.
"The crowd might not have seen huge entertainment in terms of the rugby spectacle but as the game wore on it got better and the defence towards the end shows a group of players from my point of view that are willing to do anything for each other.
"That is not coaching, it is a bond that has been created."
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