After a lot of false starts, I have finally been able to compile the latest irssi 0.8.17 for Nokia N900, and
perl scripts are supported 
I'm new to building software, and packaging, so it is possible that my deb is not properly 'formatted.'
Once I know how to, I will start using the repositories.
Hope this package helps
Having struggled for a long time with perl issues while building, I would like to give credit and thanks to villager and Shapeshifter, whose
conversation led me to the answer.
UPDATE - 2017-04-24 - built 0.8.21. Unfortunately building any 1.x is not easy (at least for me) as it needs newer libglib than we have on Maemo.
I have requested maintainer permissions for irssi. If that works out, then I'll update via extras, although it is very possible that a perl-supporting irssi might not actually build successfully on the autobuilder. Anyway, we'll see.
UPDATE - 2017-05-02Package is in Maemo Extras Testing now. Go ahead and vote after testing,
http://maemo.org/packages/package_in...rssi/0.8.21-1/