Request the current connection status of your IRLP node with this script.  Unlike nodes that do not have this handy script installed, you don't have to attempt a connection to another node/reflector in order to get the current connection status.  You can get the script here:
http://irlp.kk7av.com/scripts/connection_status

Save it to your /home/irlp/custom/ directory.  It uses a text to speech engine (Festival) to report back, in voice, whether or not your node is connected, and if so, to what node or reflector.  To make this work on your node, simply install Festival (do, "yum install festival" as root, without quotes, at the command prompt).  The connection_status script is designed to be called by a DTMF command sequence.  It even recognizes Echolink node numbers!  Simply add the following code to your /home/irlp/custom/custom_decode file in order to be able to invoke it from a DTMF command:

# report the node connection_status
if [ "$1" = "SS" ]; then
   $CUSTOM/connection_status & > /dev/null 2>&1
   exit 1
fi

That would cause the node to execute the script upon receiving the DTMF sequence, "**" (double star).  Enjoy!