You're really barking up the wrong tree here. This could be any number of issues, all of would require additional information for us to take a stab at. From the sounds of things you're lost at best.
We do not support, Macs, nor Ircle here. In terms of general IRC assistance, knowing what server you're trying to connect to would be helpful, at least then we can determine if anyone else can connect to it.
I use Ircle client btw 
