Having started brightly, the hosts appealed for a penalty with eight minutes on the clock when Ryan Manning went down inside the area, but the referee waved play on.
The Boys in Green were celebrating four minutes later, though, as Troy Parrott controlled a pass upfield before nutmegging Philipp Lienhart and skipping past his centre-back partner David Affengruber.
He duly broke into the box and slotted coolly past Florian Wiegele to make it 1-0 in fine fashion.
Austria grew into the game as the first half wore on, with Nicolas Seiwald’s shot from inside the area which went wide of the left post the closest they came to finding the net.
However, despite ending the first half in the ascendancy, Das Team found themselves two goals behind just before half-time, when Seiwald brought Manning down inside the area.
Ireland’s great new hope Parrott sent Wiegele the wrong way to double their advantage, with the spot kick making it six goal contributions in as many matches for club and country.
Ralf Rangnick’s side started their Nations League campaign with successive 3-1 victories over Israel and Kosovo at home, but they were struggling to rediscover their attacking fluency in Dublin.
However, Das Team dramatically drew themselves level within the space of five minutes.
First, substitute Alexander Prass rifled home from inside the area for his first international goal, before Michael Gregoritsch’s free-kick from just outside the area went over the ball and beat Caomhin Kelleher, who had stepped the wrong way.
All of the momentum was with Austria in the closing stages, as the Boys in Green could only muster a solitary shot in the second half and were forced into a defensive mindset to try and avoid defeat.
Heimir Hallgrímsson’s men were able to prevent any further damage, but the Irish were left to ponder what might have been – they remain third in Group B3, while Austria stay top after preserving their unbeaten start in unlikely circumstances.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Troy Parrott (Republic of Ireland)