Damascus (; Arabic: دمشق‎, translit. Dimašq [diˈmaʃq], Syrian Arabic: [dɪˈmaʃʔ]) is the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic; it is also the country's largest city, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the battle for the city. It is colloquially known in Syria as aš-Šām (الشام) and titled the "City of Jasmine" (مدينة الياسمين Madīnat al-Yāsmīn). In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 as of 2009. Located in south-western Syria, Damascus is the center of a large metropolitan area of 2.7 million people (2004). Geographically embedded on the eastern foothills of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range 80 kilometres (50 mi) inland from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean on a plateau 680 metres (2,230 ft) above sea level, Damascus experiences a semi-arid climate because of the rain shadow effect. The Barada River flows through Damascus. First settled in the second millennium BC, it was chosen as the capital of the Umayyad Caliphate from 661 to 750. After the victory of the Abbasid dynasty, the seat of Islamic power was moved to Baghdad. Damascus saw a political decline throughout the Abbasid era, only to regain significant importance in the Ayyubid and Mamluk periods. Today, it is the seat of the central government and all of the government ministries. As of 2018, Damascus has witnessed repeated conflicts and has been considered by Mercer as one of the most unfavorable places to live.

The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cerebellum plays an important role in motor control. It may also be involved in some cognitive functions such as attention and language as well as in regulating fear and pleasure responses, but its movement-related functions are the most solidly established. The human cerebellum does not initiate movement, but contributes to coordination, precision, and accurate timing: it receives input from sensory systems of the spinal cord and from other parts of the brain, and integrates these inputs to fine-tune motor activity. Cerebellar damage produces disorders in fine movement, equilibrium, posture, and motor learning in humans. Anatomically, the human cerebellum has the appearance of a separate structure attached to the bottom of the brain, tucked underneath the cerebral hemispheres. Its cortical surface is covered with finely spaced parallel grooves, in striking contrast to the broad irregular convolutions of the cerebral cortex. These parallel grooves conceal the fact that the cerebellar cortex is actually a continuous thin layer of tissue tightly folded in the style of an accordion. Within this thin layer are several types of neurons with a highly regular arrangement, the most important being Purkinje cells and granule cells. This complex neural organization gives rise to a massive signal-processing capability, but almost all of the output from the cerebellar cortex passes through a set of small deep nuclei lying in the white matter interior of the cerebellum. In addition to its direct role in motor control, the cerebellum is necessary for several types of motor learning, most notably learning to adjust to changes in sensorimotor relationships. Several theoretical models have been developed to explain sensorimotor calibration in terms of synaptic plasticity within the cerebellum. These models derive from those formulated by David Marr and James Albus, based on the observation that each cerebellar Purkinje cell receives two dramatically different types of input: one comprises thousands of weak inputs from the parallel fibers of the granule cells; the other is an extremely strong input from a single climbing fiber. The basic concept of the Marr–Albus theory is that the climbing fiber serves as a "teaching signal", which induces a long-lasting change in the strength of parallel fiber inputs. Observations of long-term depression in parallel fiber inputs have provided support for theories of this type, but their validity remains controversial.

Nord-Trøndelag (Urban East Norwegian: [²nuːrˌtrœndəlɑːɡ] (); "North Trøndelag") was a county constituting the northern part of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. The county was established in 1804 when the old was divided into two: Nordre Trondhjems amt and Søndre Trondhjems amt. In 2016, the two county councils voted to merge (back) into a single county on 1 January 2018.

The University of Oxford has 38 Colleges and six Permanent Private Halls (PPHs) of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree at the university must belong to one of the colleges or PPHs. These colleges are not only houses of residence, but have substantial responsibility for teaching undergraduate students. Generally tutorials (one of the main methods of teaching in Oxford) and classes are the responsibility of colleges, while lectures, examinations, laboratories, and the central library are run by the university. Most colleges take both graduates and undergraduates, but several are for graduates only. Undergraduate and graduate students may name preferred colleges in their applications. For undergraduate students, an increasing number of departments practise reallocation to ensure that the ratios between potential students and subject places available at each college are as uniform as possible. For the Department of Physics, reallocation is done on a random basis after a shortlist of candidates is drawn upon and before candidates are invited for interviews at the university. For graduate students, many colleges express a preference for candidates who plan to undertake research in an area of interest of one of its fellows. St Hugh's College, for example, states that it accepts graduate students in most subjects, principally those in the fields of interest of the Fellows of the college. A typical college consists of a hall for dining, a chapel, a library, a college bar, senior, middle (postgraduate), and junior common rooms, rooms for 200–400 undergraduates as well as lodgings for the head of the college and other dons. College buildings range from medieval to modern, but most are made up of interlinked quadrangles (courtyards), with a porter's lodge controlling entry from the outside. 2008 saw the first modern merger of colleges, with Green College and Templeton College merging to form Green Templeton College. This reduced the number of Colleges of the University from 39 to 38. The number of PPHs also reduced in 2008, when Greyfriars closed down.

Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. The word "Microsoft" is a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software". Microsoft is ranked No. 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of

Damascus (; Arabic: دمشق‎, translit. Dimašq [diˈmaʃq], Syrian Arabic: [dɪˈmaʃʔ]) is the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic; it is also the country's largest city, following the decline in population of Aleppo due to the battle for the city. It is colloquially known in Syria as aš-Šām (الشام) and titled the "City of Jasmine" (مدينة الياسمين Madīnat al-Yāsmīn). In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major cultural center of the Levant and the Arab world. The city has an estimated population of 1,711,000 as of 2009.

Wilson is a village in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 1,264 at the 2010 census. The village is said to be named after Luther Wilson. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Village of Wilson is within the Town of Wilson in the northern part of the county. It was incorporated on May 11, 1858. The village has a small boat harbor for Lake Ontario that includes several marinas and boat launching facilities. Wilson Harbor and its surrounding area boasts some of the best bass, trout, and salmon fishing in Western New York.

The Heptarchy is a collective name applied to the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (sometimes referred to as petty kingdoms) from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until their unification into the Kingdom of England in the early 10th century. The term "Heptarchy" (from the Greek ἑπταρχία heptarchia, from ἑπτά hepta "seven", ἀρχή arche "reign, rule" and the suffix -ία -ia)alludes to the tradition that there were seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, usually enumerated as:East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex. The historiographical tradition of the "seven kingdoms" is medieval, first recorded by Henry of Huntingdon in his Historia Anglorum (12th century);the term Heptarchy dates to the 16th century.

This is a list of book lists (bibliographies) on Wikipedia, organized by various criteria.

Hancock County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 19,104. Its county seat is Carthage, and its largest city is Hamilton. The county is made up of rural towns with many farmers. Hancock County is part of the Fort Madison-Keokuk, IA-IL-MO Micropolitan Statistical Area.

The 16 municipalities of the Åland Islands are divided into three sub-regions: Mariehamn, the countryside and the archipelago. Population data as of: January 31 2019Area data as of: January 1 2018

Lewiston is a village in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 2,701 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Morgan Lewis, an early 19th-century governor of New York. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Village of Lewiston, NY (also known as Yehęwakwáʼthaʼ in Tuscarora) is within the Town of Lewiston. The Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park lies at its southern border. Lewiston was selected by Rand McNally as one of the "Top Ten Best Small Towns in America" in November 2012.

Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists. Whether or not literary criticism should be considered a separate field of inquiry from literary theory, or conversely from book reviewing, is a matter of some controversy. For example, the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism draws no distinction between literary theory and literary criticism, and almost always uses the terms together to describe the same concept. Some critics consider literary criticism a practical application of literary theory, because criticism always deals directly with particular literary works, while theory may be more general or abstract. Literary criticism is often published in essay or book form. Academic literary critics teach in literature departments and publish in academic journals, and more popular critics publish their reviews in broadly circulating periodicals such as the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the Dublin Review of Books, The Nation, and The New Yorker.

mv (short for move) is a Unix command that moves one or more files or directories from one place to another. If both filenames are on the same filesystem, this results in a simple file rename; otherwise the file content is copied to the new location and the old file is removed. Using mv requires the user to have write permission for the directories the file will move between. This is because mv changes the content of both directories (i.e., the source and the target) involved in the move. When using the mv command on files located on the same filesystem, the file's timestamp is not updated.

In historical contexts, New Imperialism characterizes a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of overseas territorial acquisitions. At the time, states focused on building their empires with new technological advances and developments, making their territory bigger through conquest, and exploiting the resources of the subjugated countries.During the era of New Imperialism, the Western powers (and Japan) individually conquered almost all of Africa and parts of Asia. The new wave of imperialism reflected ongoing rivalries among the great powers, the economic desire for new resources and markets, and a "civilizing mission" ethos. Many of the colonies established during this era gained independence during the era of decolonization that followed World War II. The qualifier "new" is used to differentiate modern imperialism from earlier imperial activity, such as the so-called first wave of European colonization between the 15th and early-19th centuries.In the First wave of colonization, European powers conquered and colonized the Americas and Siberia; they then later established more outposts in Africa and Asia.

mv (short for move) is a Unix command that moves one or more files or directories from one place to another. If both filenames are on the same filesystem, this results in a simple file rename; otherwise the file content is copied to the new location and the old file is removed. Using mv requires the user to have write permission for the directories the file will move between. This is because mv changes the content of both directories (i.e., the source and the target) involved in the move. When using the mv command on files located on the same filesystem, the file's timestamp is not updated. On UNIX implementations derived from AT&T UNIX, cp, ln and mv are implemented as a single program with hard-linked binaries. The behavior is selected from the last path component name in argv[0]. This is a common technique by which closely related commands that have been packaged as a unit allow the user to specify the particular course of intended action.

In historical contexts, New Imperialism characterizes a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of overseas territorial acquisitions. At the time, states focused on building their empires with new technological advances and developments, making their territory bigger through conquest, and exploiting the resources of the subjugated countries.During the era of New Imperialism, the Western powers (and Japan) individually conquered almost all of Africa and parts of Asia. The new wave of imperialism reflected ongoing rivalries among the great powers, the economic desire for new resources and markets, and a "civilizing mission" ethos. Many of the colonies established d

Lewiston is a village in Niagara County, New York, United States. The population was 2,701 at the 2010 census. The village is named after Morgan Lewis, an early 19th-century governor of New York. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Village of Lewiston, NY (also known as Yehęwakwáʼthaʼ in Tuscarora) is within the Town of Lewiston. The Earl W. Brydges Artpark State Park lies at its southern border. Lewiston was selected by Rand McNally as one of the "Top Ten Best Small Towns in America" in November 2012. Lewiston is situated on the Niagara River, just across the river from Canada. The Niagara River intersects the Niagara Escarpment between Lewiston and Queenston, Ontario, identifying the escarpment's Lewiston-Queenston section as the geologic origin of Niagara Falls. Over a roughly 12,500 year span, the falls has eroded nearly 7 miles south from Lewiston to its present location in Niagara Falls, NY, creating the 7 mile long Niagara Gorge. Lewiston lies halfway between the world-famous Niagara Falls and historic Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York. Niagara Falls is about a ten-minute drive to the south. Visitors from Canada can take the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge across the Niagara River. Popular summer festivals include the Outdoor Art Festival (the second weekend in August) and the Historic Lewiston Jazz Festival (the last weekend in August). The famous Kiwanis Peach Festival takes place during the second weekend of September. Several other festivals, such as the Harvest Fest, take place during the year. Most are held on or near Center Street, the Village's main street (18F North). Lewiston recently won an online voting contest sponsored by USA Today and Rand McNally for "Best for Food" small town in America, beating 176 other communities. Lewiston has over 30 locally owned and operated restaurant/food establishments within a mile, primarily on Center Street, catering to a variety of tastes. It was also designated in the same contest as one of the "Top Ten Best Small Towns in America."

The Heptarchy is a collective name applied to the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England (sometimes referred to as petty kingdoms) from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until their unification into the Kingdom of England in the early 10th century. The term "Heptarchy" (from the Greek ἑπταρχία heptarchia, from ἑπτά hepta "seven", ἀρχή arche "reign, rule" and the suffix -ία -ia)alludes to the tradition that there were seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, usually enumerated as:East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex.

The University of Oxford has 38 Colleges and six Permanent Private Halls (PPHs) of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree at the university must belong to one of the colleges or PPHs. These colleges are not only houses of residence, but have substantial responsibility for teaching undergraduate students. Generally tutorials (one of the main methods of teaching in Oxford) and classes are the responsibility of colleges, while lectures, examinations, laboratories, and the central library are run by the university. Most colleges take both graduates and undergraduates, but several are for graduates only.

The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cerebellum plays an important role in motor control. It may also be involved in some cognitive functions such as attention and language as well as in regulating fear and pleasure responses, but its movement-related functions are the most solidly established. The human cerebellum does not initiate movement, but contributes to coordination, precision, and accurate timing: it receives input from sensory systems of the spinal cord and from other parts of the brain, and integrates these inputs to fine-tune motor activity. Cerebellar damage produces disorders i

Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total population of 744 million (as of 2018), some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language;within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Slavic, Romance and Germanic, with more than 200 million speakers each, between them accounting for close to 90% of Europeans. Smaller phyla of Indo-European found in Europe include Hellenic (Greek, c. 10 million), Baltic (c. 7 million), Albanian (c. 5 million), Indo-Aryan (Romani, c. 1.5 million) and Celtic (including Welsh, c. 1 million). Of c. 45 million Europeans speaking non-Indo-European languages, around 20 million each fall within the Uralic and Turkic families. Still smaller groups (such as Basque and various languages of the Caucasus) account for less than 1% of European population between them. Immigration has added sizeable communities of speakers of African and Asian languages, amounting to about 4% of the population, with Arabic being the most widely spoken of them.Five languages have more than 50 million native speakers in Europe: Russian, German, French, Italian and English. While Russian has the largest number of native speakers (more than 100 million in Europe), English in Europe has the largest number of speakers in total, including some 200 million speakers of English as a second language.
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total population of 744 million (as of 2018), some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language;within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Slavic, Romance and Germanic, with more than 200 million speakers each, between them accounting for close to 90% of Europeans. Smaller phyla of Indo-European found in Europe include Hellenic (Greek, c. 10 million), Baltic (c. 7 million), Albanian (c. 5 million), Indo-Aryan (Romani, c. 1.5 million) and Celtic (including Welsh, c. 1 million).

The counties of Ireland (Irish: contaetha na hÉireann; Ulster-Scots: coonties o Airlann) are sub-national divisions that have been, and in some cases continue to be, used to geographically demarcate areas of local government. These land divisions were formed following the Norman invasion of Ireland in imitation of the counties then in use as units of local government in the Kingdom of England. The older term "shire" was historically equivalent to "county". The principal function of the county was to impose royal control in the areas of taxation, security and the administration of justice at the local level. Cambro-Norman control was initially limited to the southeastern parts of Ireland; a further four centuries elapsed before the entire island was shired. At the same time, the now obsolete concept of county corporate elevated a small number of towns and cities to a status which was deemed to be no less important than the existing counties in which they lay. This double control mechanism of 32 counties plus 10 counties corporate remained unchanged for a little over two centuries until the early 19th century. Since then, counties have been adapted and in some cases divided by legislation to meet new administrative and political requirements. The powers exercised by the Cambro-Norman barons and the Old English nobility waned over time. New offices of political control came to be established at a county level. In the Republic of Ireland, some counties have been split resulting in the creation of new counties. Along with certain defined cities, counties still form the basis for the demarcation of areas of local government in the Republic of Ireland. Currently, there are 26 county level, 3 city level and 2 city and county entities – the modern equivalent of counties corporate – that are used to demarcate areas of local government in the Republic. In Northern Ireland, counties are no longer used for local government; districts are instead used. Upon the partition of Ireland in 1921, the county became one of the basic land divisions employed, along with county boroughs.

Gagaku (雅楽, ancient imperial court music and dances, lit. "elegant music") is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries and today by the Board of Ceremonies at Tokyo Imperial Palace. This kind of music was first imported into Japan from China; however, artistically it differs from the music of the corresponding Chinese form yayue which is a term reserved for ceremonial music. Gagaku consists of three primary repertoires: 1.
* Native Shinto religious music and imperial songs and dance, called Kuniburi no utamai 2.
* Vocal music based on native folk poetry, called Utaimono 3.
* Songs and dance based on foreign music 1.
* A Chinese and South Asian form (specifically Tang Dynasty), called Tōgaku 2.
* A Korean and Manchurian form, called komagaku (named after Goguryeo, which is pronounced Koma in Japanese) Gagaku, like shōmyō, employ the yo scale, a pentatonic scale with ascending intervals of two, three, two, two, and three semitones between the five scale tones.

Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. The word "Microsoft" is a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software". Microsoft is ranked No. 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions, their largest being the acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016, followed by their acquisition of Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in May 2011. As of 2015, Microsoft is market-dominant in the IBM PC-compatible operating system market and the office software suite market, although it has lost the majority of the overall operating system market to Android. The company also produces a wide range of other consumer and enterprise software for desktops and servers, including Internet search (with Bing), the digital services market (through MSN), mixed reality (HoloLens), cloud computing (Azure) and software development (Visual Studio). Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO in 2000, and later envisioned a "devices and services" strategy. This began with the acquisition of Danger Inc. in 2008, entering the personal computer production market for the first time in June 2012 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers; and later forming Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokia's devices and services division. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014, the company has scaled back on hardware and has instead focused on cloud computing, a move that helped the company's shares reach its highest value since December 1999. In 2018, Microsoft surpassed Apple as the most valuable publicly traded company in the world after being dethroned by the tech giant in 2010.

Gagaku (雅楽, ancient imperial court music and dances, lit. "elegant music") is a type of Japanese classical music that has been performed at the Imperial Court in Kyoto for several centuries and today by the Board of Ceremonies at Tokyo Imperial Palace. This kind of music was first imported into Japan from China; however, artistically it differs from the music of the corresponding Chinese form yayue which is a term reserved for ceremonial music. Gagaku consists of three primary repertoires:

Nord-Trøndelag (Urban East Norwegian: [²nuːrˌtrœndəlɑːɡ] (); "North Trøndelag") was a county constituting the northern part of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. The county was established in 1804 when the old was divided into two: Nordre Trondhjems amt and Søndre Trondhjems amt. In 2016, the two county councils voted to merge (back) into a single county on 1 January 2018. As of 1 January 2014, the county had 135,142 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-least populated county. The largest municipalities are Stjørdal, Steinkjer—the county seat, Levanger, Namsos and Verdal, all with between 24,000 and 12,000 inhabitants. The economy is primarily centered on services, although there are significant industries in agriculture, fisheries, hydroelectricity and forestry. It has the lowest gross domestic product per capita of any county in the country. Nord-Trøndelag covered 22,412 square kilometres (8,653 sq mi), making it the sixth-largest county, and it consisted of 23 municipalities. The district of Innherred runs along the east side of the Trondheimsfjord, and is the most populated area, with much farming. To the south lies the district of Stjørdalen, while in the north, the larger district of Namdalen stretches from the Norwegian Sea to the mountains bordering Sweden. West of the Trondheimsfjord lays Fosen. Nord-Trøndelag bordered Sør-Trøndelag county to the south and Nordland county to the north. The western part of the county has several large valleys and consists largely of unpopulated wilderness, including four national parks. Snåsavatnet is the largest lake, while major rivers include Namsen, Verdalselva and Stjørdalselva. Innherred was an important area during the Viking Age and featured the Battle of Stiklestad. The county was created in 1804 and was known as "Nordre Trondhjems amt" until 1919. Since the 1950s, the county has experienced a population growth below national levels. The axis north–south through the country past Grong and along the west side of Trondheim Fjord is a main transport artery, including the European Route E6 and the Nordland Line.

Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.

The counties of Ireland (Irish: contaetha na hÉireann; Ulster-Scots: coonties o Airlann) are sub-national divisions that have been, and in some cases continue to be, used to geographically demarcate areas of local government. These land divisions were formed following the Norman invasion of Ireland in imitation of the counties then in use as units of local government in the Kingdom of England. The older term "shire" was historically equivalent to "county". The principal function of the county was to impose royal control in the areas of taxation, security and the administration of justice at the local level. Cambro-Norman control was initially limited to the southeastern parts of Ireland; a further four centuries elapsed before the entire island was shired. At the same time, the now obsolet