spinetd is a simple inetd-like application. (See http://www.linuxco.de/spinetd/ for original page) Attached here is a modified version. It has optional arguments, more errorchecking, sane defaults, forking to the background, fewer bugs, etcetera. 
Its syntax is:
/spinetd [-b bind_address] [-w working_dir] [-u set_user] <bind_port> <program> <opt> <opt> ...
bind_adress is what IP it binds to (all IPs per default), working_dir is what dir it changes to before it runs the file, set_user is what user it changes to after it has done the bind (if you e.g. want port < 1025, but still feel safe ;)) (only valid as root (uid 0))
It works great for people who cannot (or will not) run inetd / xinetd and configure it for irssi2. (E.g. limited users on a system (nonadmins))
Download and extract the attached file (spinetd-fork-v1.tgz). (Click "More actions:" and "Attachments" to find it)
- Run a 'make'.
- ./spinetd 1027 /path/to/irssi2/binary
Tada! Simple as pie! 