Violence erupted during the afternoon, and involved two Travellers with a history of animosity.
Chaos erupted at a Christmas market in Manchester (Image: MEN)
Chaos erupted at a Christmas market on Sunday afternoon as two Travellers were involved in a fight. Christmas shoppers looked on in shock when the two men with a longstanding fued clashed.
The violence erupted in Exchange Square in Manchester city centre outside Selfridges at 4.35pm when newly released from jail Dougie Joyce and his bitter rival Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley were involved in a scrap outside the high-end department store. The opening moments of the altercation, filmed and circulated widely online, showed the duo fighting before tumbling to the pavement. Following the braul, Openshaw-born businessman Joyce – an unexpected ally of Liz Truss – and McGinley both declared themselves the winner and traded insults at each other, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Videos of the altercation show Joyce shouting “get it up there son – who are you?” whilst squaring up to his rival before aiming a number of blows at McGinley.
The rivals then end up grappling with each other and falling to the floor before bystanders desperately intervene by seperating the pair, who then disappear out of the videos view.
The altercation is said to have concluded outside a Porky Pig stall although this does not appear to have been captured in any released video.
Subsequently, both McGinley and Joyce uploaded video statements about the scuffle. McGinley, who seemed to be aboard a train, said: “Dougie Joyce, you came tonight to the Christmas market and you’re acting now a bit of a blackguard.”
He then put his camera up close to his face and said “there’s nothing there – there’s not a black eye”. He continued: “But Dougie Joyce, I knocked you out on your a**e with two or three belts.”
In the two-minute footage, McGinley proposes that Dougie brings in his cousin Tommy Joyce as referee for a rematch and to “get the fight on” before branding his foe “you dirty big knacker” and a “country boy”.
That very evening, Dougie Joyce proceeded to upload a six-minute tirade against McGinley in which Joyce remains off-camera but can be heard as he appears to drive through Manchester city centre.
In the clip, Joyce said he took his watch off ‘as a fair chap’, gave his phone “to the missus” ahead of an encounter with someone else but that McGinley then appeared.
“And this is the gospel truth and this is on me mommy’s life, yeah. Simey walked up to me in front of him and there’s no point lying about it, and he knows his own self, he hit me a headbutt… straight to the face,” said Joyce, laughing.
He added: “The beating that I give Simey McGinley, and this is on my mommy’s life, my sons’ lives, my beautiful little girls’ lives, he didn’t know what day it was. The fella with two pigs eyes got smashed and knocked out 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 so disoriented that he “didn’t know whether you were coming or going”, and even when “all your brothers got stuck into me”, they couldn’t knock him down. Joyce didn’t mince words, saying: “F*** you. You should be embarrassed in your life.”
He claimed he knocked his rival “spark out” and challenged him to another fight the following morning, adding: “Simey, speak in the morning, no videos back and forth, all I want is a time in the morning, a location, my cousin Tommy or any of the boys, your uncle Jonnie or cousin Jonnie or whatever. Let’s get it on. You got sparked. You got f***ed…. Did you realise, yeah, Dougie Joyce can bang!? You got f***ed!”
He laughed as he called McGinley a “dirty smelly bog man’s b*****d”. He promised to publish CCTV of the fight and called McGinley a “dirty smelly tramp’s b*****d”.
A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police confirmed officers responded to reports of a disturbance in Exchange Square at 4.35pm on Sunday but incident appeared to be over when they arrived. Officers spoke to both men but “neither would disclose anything” and the men, left said the GMP spokeswoman, who said no complaints were made.
The long-standing rivalry between the two men can be traced back to 2016 when they were embroiled in a verbal spat while trying to arrange another bout. In June, Dougie Joyce posed with former Prime Minister Liz Truss to launch his new whisky brand.
He shared a video on Instagram where he and Truss are seen at a table, with her holding a bottle of Joyce’s Irish whisky.
In the video, Joyce hands her the whisky, quipping “just remember – Dougie Joyce loves ya”, to which Truss responds with “Liz Truss loves you”.
His most recent stint behind bars came in March 2024 following a violent clash between the Joyce and Doherty traveller families at the Vine pub in Collyhurst.
Dougie Joyce was jailed for 13 months for violent disorder after trouble broke out. The two families had attended the pub as part of a wake following the death of two young men who were part of the traveller community.
At the time of his sentencing, he was already in jail after he was imprisoned in November 2023 for attacking a widower in a pub in the city centre, after which police described him as an ‘aggressive and violent man who intended to intimidate and inflict pain on a vulnerable 78-year-old’.
