IrcZombie is a project mainly written in C#, it's free.
Prototype C# IRC framework that can be 'revived'
So what exactly does this prototype do?
1) It copies the entire application to a temporary directory so you can update the executable in-place. 2) If you tell it to "!restart", it will finish up the line it's currently reading (if any), and pass off the Socket to a new process refreshed (and copied again) from the original directory -- all without needing to reconnect! 3) It will recover state information via IRC commands (It's nick, the channels it's in, who's in those channels and so forth)
Notes:
Currently, it knows more when it 'recovers' than when it connects normally. Lol.