Manchester Christmas markets delivered to halt as rival Travellers brawl close to customers
Manchester’s Christmas markets were disrupted when Dougie Joyce, recently released from prison, and his long-time foe Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley were involved in a fight
Manchester’s Christmas markets ground to a halt when two Travellers with a longstanding feud clashed in front of festive revellers. The brawl kicked off in Exchange Square outside Selfridges when Dougie Joyce, freshly out of jail, and his bitter rival Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley came to blows outside the upmarket department store.
The opening moments of the altercation, filmed and circulated online, showed the duo scrapping before tumbling to the pavement just after 4.30pm on Sunday (November 23).. Following the fracas, Openshaw-born businessman Joyce – an unexpected ally of Liz Truss – and McGinley both declared themselves the winner whilst hurling abuse at each other, reports the Manchester Evening News.
In footage of the confrontation in Exchange Square posted online, Joyce squares up to his rival outside Selfridges and can be heard yelling ‘get it up there son – who are you?,’ before launching several punches at McGinley.
The pair then grapple with one another and crash to the ground before bystanders intervene to pull the two apart, who then disappear into the throng and out of sight. Both men proclaimed triumph in the dust-up which reportedly concluded outside a Porky Pig stall, though this wasn’t caught on any released video.
Subsequently, both McGinley and Joyce uploaded video statements about the scuffle. McGinley, who seemed to be aboard a train, declared: “Dougie Joyce, you came tonight to the Christmas market and you’re acting now a bit of a blackguard.”
He showed the camera close up of his face which and said ‘there’s nothing there – there’s not a black eye’. He continued: “But Dougie Joyce, I knocked you out on your a*** 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 opponent ‘you dirty big knacker’ and a ‘country boy’. That same evening, Dougie Joyce uploaded a six-minute tirade against McGinley in which Joyce remains off-camera but can be heard whilst apparently driving from Manchester city centre.
In the footage, Joyce explained he removed his watch ‘as a fair chap’, handed his phone ‘to the missus’ before an altercation with someone else when McGinley turned up.
“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.”
Joyce boasted about knocking his rival ‘spark out’ and issued a challenge for a rematch the next morning. He said: “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!”.
Joyce couldn’t help but laugh as he labelled McGinley a ‘dirty smelly bog man’s b******’. He vowed to release CCTV footage of their brawl and called McGinley a ‘dirty smelly tramp’s b******’.
A representative from Greater Manchester Police confirmed that officers were dispatched following reports of a disturbance in Exchange Square at 4.35pm on Sunday. However, by the time they arrived, the incident seemed to have ended.
The officers spoke to both men, but ‘neither would disclose anything’, according to the GMP spokeswoman. She added that no complaints were made and the men left the scene.
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 was seen hobnobbing 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’. Joyce, a prominent figure in Manchester’s Traveller community, has a lengthy criminal record.
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.
Joyce received a 13-month sentence for violent disorder after chaos erupted. Both families had gathered at the pub for a wake in memory of two young men from the traveller community.
At the time of his sentencing, Joyce was already serving time for an assault on a widower at a city centre pub in November 2023. Following this incident, police labelled him as an ‘aggressive and violent man who intended to intimidate and inflict pain on a vulnerable 78 year old’.
