The GTC Optical Intermediate Resolution Spectrograph or GO-IRS is a recently proposed instrument for the Gran Telescopio de Canarias (GTC).  This instrument is designed to be a powerful tool for answering basic questions about both the nearby and distant universe.  GO-IRS is an optical multi-object spectrograph that can take between 1000 and 1600 spectra at a time, covering a spectral range from 370 to 1000 nm. In order to achieve this, GO-IRS can be run in two distinct modes.  The first mode uses a fiber positioner that can align up to 1000 MOS fibers covering a field of view of 15 arcmin in diameter.  This mode can have spectral resolutions of, 2000, 5000, 10000, and 20000.  The second mode is to use 4 Integral Field Units each with 400 fibers providing 1600 spectra over a field of view of 2 arcmin in diameter.  This mode can have resolutions of approximately 7000, 13000, and 20000.  The GO-IRS instrument is composed of two identical spectrographs, each of which has a blue (370- 600nm) and a red channel (600-1000 nm) which allows for significant wavelength coverage, with each observation.  These abilities will make GO-IRS a powerful player when compared with other facility class instruments such as Deimos on Keck, FLAMES and VIMOS on the VLT and the upcomming VIRUS on HET.