To the people of Ireland: Save Parvani Hall

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Wednesday January 10, 2018 13:52 by Horatio Moncur

Parvani Hall stands beautifully and gracefully upon the ancestral lands of Shivam O'Brien, the maker and visionary of this magnificent building. Galway County Council want to knock this building down on the grounds that it is 'not sustainable' yet it is the absolute epitome of sustainable architecture, exemplary in fact. They refused meetings with Shivam, cost him and his family many years of aggravation and 22,000 euros in cost. Support him in his own right, on his own land, to be and build and live peacefully, in beauty and in harmony with the land.

To the People of Galway

Shivam O'Brien needs your help! For four hundred and fifty years his family have lived and worked on the land of Correndrum, happily maintaining it through hard times and good. Now it happens that Shivam and his friends built a lovely little building to the side of his house, a beautiful larch clad, environmentally friendly ornamented hall, originally intended to be a place of peace and play – a meditation hall, a birthing center, a storytelling arena, and more. What more a pretty place for these activities could be built?

Shivam built this building with the intention of doing what is most often practiced here in Ireland, building first and then applying for Planning Retention. The first application for retention was refused, the use of the hall as a "commercial building" was denied. A second application, this time on the grounds that the hall would only be used by his family as part of the home, was also rejected. These two applications and other administrative costs have hurt Shivam to the amount of over 22,000 Euros! Now the case has gone to the county courts. After four days and three nights of fasting on the steps of Galway County Council, Shivam has been dutifully ignored by the council members, and his extensive preparation and strong arguments left the court with no option but to call a special hearing at a later date. The council have been rattled by the amount of support that has been given Shivam, and are no doubt preparing a strong case to display their power and have this lovely structure demolished.

Therefore, we call upon you, Galway residents, historic Irish people, to give your support to help save Parvani Hall. Lend a hand to this Irish poet, storyteller, man of the land, ancient visionary, and give your name to the petition, let the council know your thoughts, tell your friends, and get the message out that something beautiful is at serious risk of being destroyed. If you can, throw a few sheckles his way to pay for court costs and other expenses. But most of all speak up! Don't let a wonder on the land be razed simply because of a few ignorant bureaucrats and an oppressive system that takes from those that have the least to feed a greedy minority of faceless elites, compassionless hard-hearted monsters.

Ireland declared independence from the British empire nearly 100 years ago, and yet it is still behaving in the same way as it's oppressors, treating the hard working and downtrodden natives with nearly as much contempt and bellicosity as those royal barbarians to the west. This campaign is no longer about one man trying to save the picturesque efforts of his own two hands, but a fight against those who dare take what is rightfully ours, our lands, our wages, our natural beauty, our history. It's time to stand up and say no! We are not slaves, our hearts will not be crushed so easily, we no longer want to live in a world of ugly concrete and plastic where the only buildings that get made are flat, grey, soulless structures selling fast food and cheap Chinese merchandise.

Let's keep something for the soul, built with passion and love, built for us, our children, grandchildren, and all who love life.

Show your support here: https://www.change.org/p/shivam-save-parvani-hall?recru...ition
Donate to the Campaign here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-parvani-hall/?utm_so...eting
Watch Shivam’s Live Videos on his Facebook: Shivam O’Brien

& of course, come visit Parvani Hall and speak to Shivam, see what can be built if one's dreams are followed and a life is lived without fear, in a world rapidly in decline, a tiny offering of beauty still stands; let’s keep it.