Irssi is currently the state of the art in console-based IRC clients. It has an extensive configuration with good defaults, a coherent system for storing network, server and channel settings, a clean interface for scripting with Perl, and more besides. The code is modular enough that it's restricted to neither the console interface nor the IRC protocol, and indeed SILC and ICB protocol modules already exist.
A lot of people in #wlug use Irssi.
See IrssiNotes for easy to follow instructions on how to setup Irssi to auto connect and save look and feel.
Part of CategoryUtilities
2 pages link to Irssi:
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