Manchester Christmas market chaos as rival Travellers fight | UK | News
Chaos breaks out at Christmas market in Manchester (Image: MEN)
Chaos broke out at a Christmas market on Sunday afternoon when two Travelers got into a fight. Christmas shoppers watched in astonishment as two men who had been fighting for a long time got into a fight.
The violence broke out in Manchester city centre’s Exchange Square, outside Selfridges, at 4.35pm, when Dougie Joyce, who had just been released from prison, and his bitter rival Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley were involved in a fight outside a luxury department store. In the opening moments of the argument, which was filmed and spread widely online, the pair were seen fighting before falling to the pavement. Following the fight, Openshaw-born businessman Joyce and McGinley, who became Liz Truss’s unlikely ally, declared themselves the winners and hurled insults at each other. Manchester Evening News.
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Videos of the argument show Joyce yelling “come up son, who are you?” He can be seen shouting. as he challenged his opponent before landing a series of blows on McGinley.
The rivals then grapple with each other and fall to the ground, before onlookers desperately intervene and separate the pair, who then disappear from view of the video.
The altercation is said to have ended outside a Porky Pig stall, but this does not appear to have been captured in any posted video.
Both McGinley and Joyce later uploaded video statements about the fight. Appearing to be on the train, McGinley said: “Dougie Joyce, you came to the Christmas market tonight and now you’re acting like a bit of a scoundrel.”
He then moved his camera closer to his face and said, “There’s nothing there, not a black eye.” He continued: “But Dougie Joyce, I knocked you out with two or three belts.”
In the two-minute footage, McGinley suggests that Dougie bring in his cousin Tommy Joyce to referee the rematch and “get the fight started” before branding his foe “you filthy grandmaster” and “country boy”.
That same evening, Dougie Joyce launched into a six-minute tirade against McGinley, in which Joyce remained off-camera but could be heard driving through Manchester city centre.
In the clip, Joyce said that “as a fair man” he took off his watch and handed his phone to “the lady” before running into someone else, but then McGinley appeared.
“And it’s the gospel truth and it’s about my mother’s life, yes. Simey walked up to me in front of her and there’s no point lying about it and she knows herself, she head-butted me… right in my face,” Joyce said, laughing.
He added: “The beating I gave Simey McGinley was for my mother’s life, my sons’ life, my beautiful little girls’ lives, she didn’t know what day it was. Two piggy-eyed men went to pieces, fainted and didn’t know what day it was. Simey, I bet you didn’t think Dougie Joyce could hit like that, did you?! Simey, Simey, Simey, you’re an embarrassment, mate.”
He accused his opponent of being “too confused to know if you were coming” and of being unable to knock him out even when “all your brothers were stuck with me.” Joyce cut to the chase and said: “Fuck you. You should be ashamed of your life.”
He claimed he knocked out his opponent “with a spark” and challenged him to another fight the next morning, adding: “Simey, talk in the morning, no video back and forth, all I want is an hour in the morning, somewhere, my cousin Tommy or any of the boys, your uncle Jonnie or your cousin Jonnie or whatever. Let’s get started. You’re hot. You’re fucked…. Do you realize, yes, Dougie Joyce can hit!? You’re fucked!”
He laughed as he called McGinley a “dirty, smelly swamp man’s bitch.” He promised to release CCTV of the fight and called McGinley a “stinking bum bitch”.
Douglas Joyce (Image: GMP)
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman confirmed officers responded to reports of disturbances in Exchange Square at 4.35pm on Sunday but the incident appeared to be over when they arrived. A GMP spokesman said officers spoke to both men but “neither disclosed anything” and no complaints were made by the men on the left.
The long-running rivalry between the two men can be traced back to 2016, when they got into a verbal argument while trying to book another match. In June, Dougie Joyce posed with former Prime Minister Liz Truss to launch his new whiskey brand.
He shared a video on Instagram in which he and Truss are seen at a table holding a bottle of Joyce’s Irish whiskey.
In the video, Joyce hands her the whiskey and jokes, “just remember – Dougie Joyce loves you,” to which Truss responds, “Liz Truss loves you.”
Dougie Joyce and Liz Truss (Image: Instagram / dougiejoyce_iam_manchester2023)
His last stint behind bars took place in March 2024, following a violent clash between the Joyce and Doherty traveler families at the Vine pub in Collyhurst.
Dougie Joyce was sentenced to 13 months in prison for violent disorder after trouble broke out. The two families had attended the bar as part of a funeral ceremony following the deaths of two teenagers who were part of the traveling community.
At the time of his sentencing, he was already in prison after being jailed for attacking a widower at a city center bar in November 2023, after which police described him as “an aggressive and violent man who intended to frighten and inflict pain on a defenseless 78-year-old person.”
