Dear biged9231 staff,
thank you for posting this interesting project.
I am experienced in protocol-level network programming, including IRC. So I can handle your project in a professional manner.
You should know that by itself, an Ajax/PHP application cannot handle IRC. This is because Ajax/PHP does not require (and therefore does not provide) persistent TCP/IP connections. But IRC does require such a connection.
So my proposal includes a background process which can be controlled from PHP, and which will handle the TCP/IP connections to the IRCd. I would prefer to write this process in C++ as it adds greater robustness and maintainability when compared to C. But I can also offer a C-based solution at 50% extra.
You should make sure that the server where you run your web site does allow background processes, otherwise it won't work (or we would have to outsource this part).
Also, in order to proceed, I'll need more details on your Ajax/PHP chat software in order to determine how to interface to it.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
Isidor Zeuner