Louth Civil Defence Fire & Flood Response Defender
Louth Civil Defence's fire and flood response Land Rover, 98-WW-5593 — a white Defender 130 double cab with a box body, blue-and-orange waist stripe, Civil Defence roundels, roof rack with blue light bar, snorkel, winch and bonnet spare — deployed to the Tall Ships Race at Waterford in June 2011.
History
Civil Defence in Ireland is the volunteer emergency service run by each county council under the Department of Defence, turning out for flooding, storms, searches, first aid at events and support to the fire service. Louth Civil Defence, based at Dundalk and Drogheda, equipped a Land Rover Defender as a combined fire and flood response unit — a wading 4x4 with a winch and a box body for pumps, hoses and dry suits — and took it, with other units from around the country, to support the Tall Ships Race in Waterford in June 2011.
The unit's own Flickr photograph shows the vehicle there: a white Defender 130 double cab with a box body on the bed to cab height, an orange stripe edged in blue along the waist, the Civil Defence roundel — COSAINT SHIBHALTA / CIVIL DEFENCE round an orange disc with the blue triangle — on the front doors and bonnet, mirror-written CIVIL DEFENCE across the bonnet, chequer plate on the bonnet lip and wing tops, a roof rack over the cab carrying a blue light bar and spot lamps, a snorkel on the left A-pillar, the spare on the bonnet, a red winch in the front bumper, white steel wheels and the Irish plate 98-WW-5593 (a 1998 Wicklow registration, so a used vehicle acquired by the county). The queue row describes a 110 hard top; the photograph shows a double cab with a rear body, and the model follows the photograph. The registry model reproduces that vehicle in the Marine group; lettering on the box body is inferred from the unit's role, as the photograph does not show its side clearly.
Corrected at review: the roundel now follows the Civil Defence Ireland badge exactly and appears on the front doors and bonnet only.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Defender 130 double cab, 1998)
- Manufactured
- 1998 (98-WW registration); photographed June 2011
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- Louth Civil Defence (box body and response fit)
- Engine type
- Land Rover 300 Tdi 2.5 L turbo-diesel (inferred from 1998 build)
- Production run
- 1
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- Ireland
- Status
- unknown
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Defender
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 130″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- Louth Civil Defence Land Rover at the Tall Ships Race, Waterford (Flickr, louthcivildefence) ↗ — Flickr (accessed 2026-09-12)
- Civil Defence Ireland roundel (Flickr, reviewer-supplied reference) ↗ — Flickr (accessed 2026-09-12)
Catalogue references
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/louthcivildefence/6708168847/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/louthcivildefence/6708168847/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-12T09:00:16.000Z · status: researched