How do I join a channel on Freenode with Empathy?

I have empathy already installed but am not sure how to configure it to join the channel at http://www.ape-project.org. I do not have a password or login name yet to properly configure the channel with Empathy and when I click "Join our IRC Channel" firefox comes back with an error stating:

Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (irc) isn't associated with any program.

What can I do to join this (freenode) channel?

UPDATE 1 Using Empathy Version 2.23.1 When viewing accounts click "Add..." Protocol: "IRC" Network: "freenode" create new nickname, password, and real name.

Then went back to ape-project.org link and click "Join our IRC Channel" again. It brings my Empathy contact list to the foreground but nothing happens...

Basically the channel name for the ape-project is #ape-project. So after joining to freenode on empathy Just do

/join #ape-project

on text input field.

In ubuntu 13.04, you should add the account-plugin-irc package to use IRC:

sudo apt-get install account-plugin-irc

After that you'll have an IRC account option under "Online Accounts".