I'm working on a module for an IRC client class called SphereIRC (https://github.com/Eggbertx/SphereIRC), and I may eventually start working on a server class as well.
Back in the day I wrote a very simplistic IRC bot for Sphere 1.5. Since Sphere 1.x is long dead and miniSphere has been here for a long time now, I figured I should probably resurrect it (SphereBot, not Sphere 1.x), but early on, I decided to work it into a general purpose IRC module to be integrated into your online game projects instead of a standalone bot.
(https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Eggbertx/SphereIRC/master/consolescreenshot.png)