Something about the history of IRC
 

IRC was written in response to the limitations of the synchronous communication programs in existence. Jarkko Oikarinen decided to write a computer program that would enable multiple users to engage in synchronous communication across a network. This project was known as Internet Relay Chat.

Jarkko Oikarinen wrote the original IRC program at the University of Oulu, Finland, in 1988. He designed IRC as a 'client-server' program. The user runs a 'client' program from his or her local machine, which then connects, via the Internet, to a 'server' program which may not be running on that local machine. There are hundreds of IRC 'servers' over the world, all of which communicate with each other and pass information back to the client programs - and users - connected to them. IRC was first tested on a single machine with less than twenty users participating. IRC's networking capabilities were then tested on a suite of three machines in southern Finland. Once tested it was installed throughout the Finnish national network - FUNET - and then connected to NORDUNET, the Scandinavian branch of the Internet. By November of 1988, IRC had spread across the Internet.