Umm...
Firstly, the DDoS attacks against DALnet ended ages ago. No doubt like any network they suffer from threats and actions on a regular basis, but from what I've heard there is no specific trouble as of late, and certainly nothing on the scale of the previous attacks.
I find it's best to use the irc.dal.net server pool to connect to DALnet since they introduced their IX servers. I have no problem connecting to DALnet at all (I'm in the UK too), and although I do get disconnected from there with 10053 more often than Undernet or EFnet, it isn't a massive amount more. Apparently, over 30,000 other clients also don't have trouble connecting.
According to /links by the way, it has 21 servers, I realise that the list available on the web isn't as up to date as that list.
Regards,
