Uni firewall IRC workaround halp

Heya guys, I've been in this Uni for a while and I've really been missing the IRC usage I could get at home. Their firewall is blocking a shitload of ports, including the ones needed for IRC.

Anyone knwo a workaround for this?

Tor probably won't help much, as IRC networks often block exit nodes.  I think you should pay for a shell account, ssh into it, and run a command-line IRC client like BitchX or irssi there.