Something that jirb boots on a Linux or OS X system appears to be altering the tty settings.
[] ~/projects/jruby $ stty
speed 9600 baud;
lflags: echoe echoke echoctl pendin
iflags: iutf8
oflags: -oxtabs
cflags: cs8 -parenb
[] ~/projects/jruby $ jirb
irb(main):001:0> exit
[] ~/projects/jruby $ stty
speed 9600 baud;
lflags: -icanon echoe echoke echoctl
iflags: -icrnl -ixon iutf8
oflags: -oxtabs
cflags: cs8 -parenb
dsusp lnext
<undef> <undef>
Note that after running jirb, several tty settings change including -icrnl, which breaks most interactive prompts.