My understanding of the Irish Light is that it's a very good, independent paper. It's the type of thing that you see at all grocery and convenience stores (or whatever the hell they call them there) across Ireland. Their distribution pretty much covers the entire country.

As to how influential the paper is, I don't know. I'd have to rely on the perspective of an Irish anon for that. But they have a very strong record for accuracy and good detail. The issue above in particular is from a few weeks ago.