Alright... to reiterate ... limewire does NOT have spyware, so whoever said that you are misinformed please try again.

There are plenty of IRC tutorials out on the web. www.google.com will help you. mIRC has a trial period, but even after the trial is done you can continue to use it. There are other IRC clients, but mIRC is super easy to use for the beginner. To find stuff, either browse around various servers until you find things you like or...

www.ircspy.com
www.packetnews.com

... there are some more, but my fav is down right now because of bandwidth, so I'm not sharing it with anyone... sorry.