“Mercy” – Confronting the Colluding Silence
Release Date: 15th October 2021
“We didn’t want to face up to it… You cannot say people didn’t understand what was going on. There was a colluding silence. And that colluding silence supported a state that didn’t want to intervene and assisted this institutional regime.” - President Michael D Higgins
— from the Book “The Best Catholics in the World” by Derek Scally. Published 2021.
Mercy is the third single to be taken from Pete’s debut album "Join Up the Dots" which is set for release on November 5th. Soulful and captivating, the album combines country, folk and rock with an overriding Americana feel.
ABOUT THE SONG
Mercy is a testament from an Irish working man in support of the victims and survivors of clerical and state abuse in Ireland, and indeed worldwide.
Pete says: “I attended primary school in Ireland in the late 1970’s, a school with an obligatory Catholic ethos. I witnessed daily displays of physical and mental abuse. There was also sexual abuse. The Christian brothers, nuns, priests, teachers and community at large appeared to accept this behaviour as normal.
By the mid 9o’s, I was an angry young man with a guitar. I wrote songs to vent my anger and express my emotions. Music was a healing force, a form of therapy. It was during this period that I heard Christine Buckley (Dear Daughter) recount her horrific experience of life at St. Vincent’s Institutional School (Goldenbridge) in Inchicore, Dublin. Her story moved me to tears and it inspired “Mercy”. I feel now is the right time for this song to be heard.
Mercy Music Video
This beautifully filmed video, directed by Mary Duffin, portrays the story of a survivor (played by Pete Kavanagh and his son) who has returned to his hometown to confront his former oppressor.
It is an emotional journey that will leave you thinking about it long after the video ends. Actors Brian McCabe and Mary Power Cooney's captivating performance brings the stoic, arrogant stance of an institution regime to life.
Credits
MUSIC CREDITS:
Music & Lyrics by Pete Kavanagh © Pete Kavanagh 2021
Musicians: Pete Kavanagh, Hally, William McCormack & Graham Hopkins
Recorded, Mixed, Mastered & Produced by Hally at Arthouse Studios
VIDEO CREDITS:
Director and Story Editor - Mary Duffin
Cinematographer – IrishMJ
Editor - Pam Kavanagh
Produced by Pam and Pete Kavanagh
Starring - Mary Power-Cooney, Brian McCabe, Pete Kavanagh and son.
Lyrics - Mercy
Goldenbridge
Polluted waters
Bring your son Bring your daughter
Golden bars
Faraway stars
Lambs ready for the slaughter
Plots and Schemes
Walls and fences
Children serve a prison sentence
Broken dreams
Open menace
Nothing so heavy as emptiness
Mercy Mercy Heaven up there in the sky
God forgot our wings
Sister Brother Where is my Mother
God forgets a lot of things
Bitter kisses Poisoned lips
Shattering steel silence
Crucifixes and penguin slips
Nothing so heavy as emptiness
You will never be free of this
God made the bees and the bees make the honey, Mercy
Children do the work and the nuns get the money, Mercy
Little fingers bleed on your sacred rosary beads, Mercy
Children on their knees as Heaven starts to freeze
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
You liar You thief You swore to protect me