Look ma! I'm kludging a (unofficial) FAQ.....

Just type in from any shell:

irc nickname ircserver

for example

irc Noah us.undernet.org

That's it.
Real tough, eh?

The full docs are a standard part of Linux and you can find them in the directory,

/usr/doc/ircii-help-2.8.2

If you want something different try:

BitchX - ircII Client an extended version of ircII 2.8
cIRCus - a new IRC client for Linux/X
QtIRC - IRC client from Bitgate using Qt libs
Sirc - a programmable IRC client for UNIX written in PERL
tkirc - a tickle frontend for ircII
Zircon - an X11 based IRC client

That makes seven IRC clients for Linux (that I know of.)

It's nice to have a choice.

You'll find them at...

http://www.redhat.com/linux-info/linux-app-list/linapp4.html#inet

N.V.
(probably the only one on ASD who uses linux anyways....)