Interrupt Driven SPI

I am having trouble configuring the SPI to create interrupts. I am calling the function below inside a key press interrupt(that works) to start an SPI transfer. My initialization, and following routine are posted below as well. From what I have read, the interrupt should occur when the selected interrupt bit (from spi control register) and status bit (from spi status register) are both 1. I am not recieving any message on the NIOS II IDE console except the boot up message, and the key press interrupt does work as I display the keys on an LCD.

alt_avalon_spi_command(SPI_BASE, 1, 16, &spiDataOut, 16, &spiDataIn, 0);

void init_spi_interrupt()
{
 
void* edge_capture_ptr = (void*) &spiDataIn;
 
 
//enable receive interrupt
 
IOWR_ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_STATUS(SPI_BASE, 0x0); 
 
 
//reset flags
IOWR_ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL(SPI_BASE, ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL_SSO_MSK | ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL_IRRDY_MSK);
 
//when status flag and control flag are both 1 interrupt occurs
alt_irq_register(SPI_IRQ, edge_capture_ptr, spi_ISR);
 
}
 
 
static void spi_ISR(void* context, alt_u32 id)
{
 
printf("SPI INTERRUPT DETECTED!\n");
IOWR_ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL(SPI_BASE, 0x0);
 
 
 
volatile int* edge_capture_ptr = (volatile int*) context;
 
*edge_capture_ptr = IORD_ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_RXDATA(SPI_BASE);
 
 
//reset the interrupt flags
 
IOWR_ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_STATUS(SPI_BASE, 0x0); 
 
 
//reset flags
IOWR_ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL(SPI_BASE, ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL_SSO_MSK | ALTERA_AVALON_SPI_CONTROL_IRRDY_MSK);
}