Are you trying to set up your own IRC network or just looking for software that makes it easy to manage and chat with others on your channel(s) on an existing one?
If you're just looking for software, mIRC is indeed the best. It contains its own scriptable engine that you can utilize to automate common tasks. 2 years back this is about all I did online in my free time. Help users with writing scripts or writing them myself. Let me know if you need any help.