Install the Perl-based IRC module which will add IRC support to BarnOwl the next time it is reloaded. . BarnOwl is a curses-based instant-messaging client supporting the Zephyr, Jabber, IRC and AIM protocols. Much of the functionality is written in Perl, which is supported as an etension language. . BarnOwl is a fork of ktools software's owl Zephyr/AIM client.