The opening moments of the altercation, filmed and circulated online, showed the duo trading punches before tumbling to the pavement.
John Scheerhout and Emma O’Neill Content Editor
08:49, 25 Nov 2025
Dougie Joyce and Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley were involved in a scrap in Exchange Square, Manchester(Image: MEN)
A section of Manchester’s Christmas markets ground to a halt on Sunday evening when two infamous Travellers with a lengthy history of bad blood clashed in front of stunned spectators.
The brawl kicked off in Exchange Square outside Selfridges at 4.35pm when tough guy Dougie Joyce, recently freed from jail, and his long-standing enemy Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley came to blows outside the upmarket department store. The opening moments of the altercation, filmed and circulated online, showed the duo trading punches before tumbling to the pavement.
Following the incident, Openshaw-raised entrepreneur 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, Dougie Joyce squares up to his adversary outside Selfridges and can be heard yelling ‘get it up there son – who are you?’ before launching a series of strikes at McGinley.
The duo then become locked together before crashing to the ground as bystanders rush in to pull the pair apart, who then disappear into the throng and out of sight. Both men proclaimed triumph in the dust-up which allegedly wrapped up outside a Porky Pig stall, though this appears not to have been recorded in any available video.
Dougie Joyce and Liz Truss (Image: Instagram / dougiejoyce_iam_manchester2023)
Subsequently, both McGinley and Joyce uploaded video statements regarding the fracas. 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**e with two or three belts.”
In the two-minute footage, McGinley proposes that Dougie enlists 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 where Joyce remains off-camera but can be heard whilst seemingly driving from Manchester city centre.
In the footage, Joyce explained he removed his watch ‘as a fair chap’ and handed his phone ‘to the missus’ before an altercation with someone else, but McGinley then 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 continued: “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.”
Douglas Joyce(Image: GMP)
He claimed his rival ‘didn’t know whether you were coming or going’ and then ‘all your brothers got stuck into me’ but failed to floor him. Joyce continued: “F*** you. You should be embarrassed in your life.”
He alleged he knocked his opponent ‘spark out’ and issued a challenge for another scrap the following morning, declaring: “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 cackled as he branded McGinley a ‘dirty smelly bog man’s b*****d’. He vowed to release CCTV footage of the brawl and branded McGinley a ‘dirty smelly tramp’s b*****d’.
A Greater Manchester Police spokesperson confirmed officers attended following reports of a disturbance in Exchange Square at 4.35pm on Sunday but the incident appeared to have concluded when they arrived. Police spoke to both men but ‘neither would disclose anything’ and the pair departed, said the GMP spokesperson, who confirmed no complaints were lodged.
The bad blood between the two gents can be traced back to 2016 when they were embroiled in a verbal spat as they attempted to arrange another bout. In June, Dougie Joyce was seen hobnobbing with former Prime Minister Liz Truss to plug his new whisky brand.
Dougie Joyce and Simon ‘Simey’ McGinley were involved in a scrap in Exchange Square, Manchester(Image: MEN)
He shared a video on his Instagram page showing the pair at a table, with Truss holding a bottle of Joyce’s own Irish whisky.
In the clip, Joyce hands her the whisky, quipping ‘just remember – Dougie Joyce loves ya’, to which Truss responds with ‘Liz Truss loves you’. Joyce, a well-known figure in Manchester’s Traveller community, has a lengthy rap sheet.
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 received a 13-month sentence for violent disorder after chaos erupted. Both families had been at the pub for a wake following the tragic deaths of two young men from the traveller community.
At the time of his sentencing, he was already serving time, having been jailed in November 2023 for assaulting a widower in a city centre pub. Following this incident, police labelled him an ‘aggressive and violent man who intended to intimidate and inflict pain on a vulnerable 78 year old’.