Big Mick: As a "casual" Irish-American, I would agree that craic is a useful solution.
The OED, the standard for English-speaking peoples, accepts gossip, news, as part of the meaning of crack, nothing new there. It is evident here that Irish writers have been using the spelling craic for some time, and it appears in an Irish-English Dictionary, pointed out in this thread. If one calls the attention of the OED compilers to this spelling and cites a place where it was used in print, it would appear in the next edition or supplement (if it has not already been entered in an edition later than my 1987).
As pointed out above, crack brings to many minds the drug. Use of that spelling will become more confusing as time goes on.

Has the other spelling, crake, appeared in Ireland?