https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/1239735 - my previous IRC write-up from 3 months ago.
Been using AdiIRC for about a week now and everything works as good or better than mIRC.
I do recommend a different color scheme thou. https://dev.adiirc.com/projects/adiirc/boards/6
it sounds like you never used it right. everything that exists on usenet or torrents can be found on irc.