diff --git a/python/irc.py b/python/irc.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d2a09e0a6faf950b1c0055a56590d72fd99ef8ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/irc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2
+
+import sys
+import socket
+import string
+import client
+
+def printline(nick, msg, me=False):
+  l = len(nick) + 3
+  if me:
+    l = len(nick) + 1
+    nick += " "
+  else:
+    nick = "<%s> " % nick
+  while msg:
+    client.writeline("%s%s" % (nick, msg[:96-len(nick)]))
+    nick = " " * len(nick)
+    msg = msg[96-len(nick):]
+
+HOST="irc.freenode.net"
+PORT=6667
+NICK="mensadisplay"
+IDENT="mensadisplay"
+REALNAME="MensaDisplay"
+readbuffer=""
+
+s=socket.socket( )
+s.connect((HOST, PORT))
+s.send("NICK %s\r\n" % NICK)
+s.send("USER %s %s bla :%s\r\n" % (IDENT, HOST, REALNAME))
+s.send("JOIN #stratum0\r\n")
+while 1:
+  readbuffer=readbuffer+s.recv(1024)
+  temp=string.split(readbuffer, "\n")
+  readbuffer=temp.pop( )
+
+  for line in temp:
+    line = string.rstrip(line)
+    line = string.split(line)
+    print line
+    if line[1] == "PRIVMSG":
+      nick = line[0].split("!")[0][1:]
+      msg = " ".join(line[3:])[1:]
+      try:
+        if msg.startswith("\x01ACTION"):
+          #me
+          printline(nick, msg[8:-1].decode("utf8"), True)
+        else:
+          printline(nick, msg.decode("utf8"))
+      except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        pass
+    if(line[0]=="PING"):
+      s.send("PONG %s\r\n" % line[1])
\ No newline at end of file