A portion of Great Britain originally under the supervision of an earl; a territorial division, usually identical with a county, but sometimes limited to a smaller district; as, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Richmondshire, Hallamshire.
English county. The shire court conduct the administrative, judicial and financial business of of people living in the county. (MEDIEV-L. Medieval Terms)
The Shire was a geographical region embracing a number of hundreds. Each shire had a requirement to raise a number of men to form a militia for national defence.
A shire is an administrative area of Great Britain and Australia. The first shires were created by the Anglo-Saxons in what is now central and southern England. Shires were controlled by a royal official known as a "shire reeve" or sheriff.
SHibboleth Indexical Reference Establisher. The SHIRE is the Shibboleth component that determines whether a user needs to authenticate, and if so, starts the Shibboleth process by sending the user to their Handle Service (possibly via a WAYF). The SHIRE then receives an Attribute Query Handle on return from the Handle Service.