Letters / I've been in my field for about 15 years ; PhD Cover letter for Irish Uni? [2]

Hiya,

I'm an older student wishing to go back to school and get my PhD. I've been in my field for about 15 years and as a result, have loads of experience and a good number of publications. The particular PhD post I'm after, asks only that the applicant submit a CV (no school application form) and the person specification given is quite sparse. Because of this, I'm quite anxious for my cover letter to shine brightly on my behalf.

I have a good cover letter that I work off of/tweak for employment purposes--but am not sure if it's right for a PhD program. I have published (as a co-author) in the field that the PhD is in. Also, very different from graduate programs in the States-programs here are entirely research-based rather than part reserch-part classroom.

Please can you tell me if there is a specific format I should follow? How much detail should I give about the relevant research I've done? How much should I talk about my research activities that aren't directly related to this line of research and finally, should I at all mention my none-research work?

I'm an American living in England and the program is in Ireland. I'm not sure if that's totally relevant--but seemed like it ought be mentioned...

I know this quesiton isn't totally stream-lined--but I really really want this and am getting a bit muddled even writing to you about it.

Please tell me how I can make this clearer if I'm not making any sense.

Thanks so so much for even looking at this:
Shaari
If it would make things easier-I'm happy to post my CV.