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Shocking moment feuding traveller families batter each other in organised bareknuckle mass brawl

• Published : 10:50, 21 Oct 2021
• Updated : 11:48, 21 Oct 2021
• Published : Invalid Date,

SHOCKING footage shows feuding traveller families battering each other in an organised mass brawl.

The bareknuckle fight erupted in a basketball court in Middleton, Greater Manchester, on July 27 this year.

Manchester Crown Court heard the violence exploded after a "long-running dispute" between two families.

Two men are seen trading blows as a large group gathered to watch the fight.

Others join in the as the scrap sprawls across the court in broad daylight.

Thomas Joyce, 44, is seen in a blue tank top in three-minute video, which was uploaded to YouTube.

He is seen removing the top and punching a man at one point as others begin to fight.

Towards the end of the video, a group of men kick a man who is on the ground in a horrifying assault.

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The men swarm around the victim who is hit as he lays on the floor, although Joyce wasn’t involved in this attack.

Joyce was fined £500 after pleading guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, Manchester Evening News report s.

Prosecutor Brian Berlyne said: “It appears that it has been uploaded by various observers of a fight between two members of the external family, Joyce being one of the families.

“Police have identified two external families in a long running dispute.

Several people are involved in the violence, the defendant throws punches Prosecutor Brian Berlyne

“This took place on a basketball court on Langley, in Middleton.

“Thomas Joyce is identified as being one of the parties - you can see he is wearing a light blue vest and he takes it off during the fighting.

“Several people are involved in the violence, the defendant throws punches, though he did not take part in the footage of the man who was being kicked whilst he lay on the ground.”

No other men involved in the brawl have been arrested of prosecuted.

It’s a bunch of men running around a basketball court throwing punches at each other Judge Hilary Manley

Judge Hilary Manley said of the footage: “It’s a bunch of men running around a basketball court throwing punches at each other.”

Joyce was said to have a number of previous convictions for violence, affray, public order offences and burglary.

Daniel Travers, defending, said: “It’s an unpleasant video.

"Clearly this sort of video should not take place - though they were willing parties.

'ORGANISED VIOLENCE'

“Mr Joyce played a relatively minor role and has been out of trouble for many years.

“There have been some difficulties in the travelling community. He has been making efforts to try and calm matters down."

Mr Travers said the police had approached Joyce, who "has some influence’" to help keep the communities calm.

He added that the basketball court was in a private place, owned by the travelling community, but admitted the fight wasn't "lawful or acceptable".

Sentencing, Judge Manley said: “You took part in some organised violence between two groups of people, you threw some punches.

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“It was an unedifying spectacle, really. At 44-years-old, you’re really too old to behave like this, you must surely have better things to do with your time.

“You’re not setting a good example for the young men in your community.”

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Police appeal for calm amid increasingly bitter feud between traveller clans in Manchester and Ireland

One planned fight has been thwarted and armed police swooped on an address in Middleton

• 18:05, 30 JUL 2021
• Updated 20:29, 30 JUL 2021

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Armed police swooped on a house in north Manchester amid an increasingly bitter feud between traveller families.

Video footage shared on social media showed armed cops arresting a man, 44, at a house on Martindale Crescent in Middleton on Wednesday.

The swoop came 24 hours after a fight between two groups of travellers, one based in Manchester and the other the Republic of Ireland, was due to take place on Dantzic Street just north of Manchester city centre.

But police were tipped off and a crowd of people was dispersed, according to GMP.

READ MORE: Neighbours 'hear shouting and fighting' before hit and run as man is rushed to hospital in life-threatening condition

The feud is thought to be between one traveller group based in north and east Manchester and another based in Mountbellew in Ireland.

Both groups have posted videos on YouTube goading the other side.

It has prompted a significant police operation, culminating in the armed police operation on Wednesday and an increase in patrols.

Video from that arrest was also posted on YouTube.

Assistant Chief Constable Nicky Porter, of Greater Manchester Police, has appealed for calm from both sides.

He said: "We are aware of a number of incidents linked to ongoing tensions in communities across the Greater Manchester area.

"This includes a recent incident on Dantzic Street, Manchester on Tuesday 27 July where it's believed a fight was arranged to take place. A crowd gathered, but was dispersed upon police arrival. "As a result of these ongoing tensions, an arrest of a 44-year-old man was made yesterday, in Middleton on suspicion of affray. He has since been charged. "We are continuing to monitor this situation closely and have deployed a number of additional patrols in the areas affected.

"The incidents are believed to be contained, and we want to reassure the public that we are acting upon every piece of intelligence received. If there is any information you might have that could assist in this investigation, I would urge you to get in touch. "We want to take this opportunity to appeal for calm among these communities, as well as reiterate that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.

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"If you have any information, you can report it to us at www.gmp.police.uk using our online reporting or Live Chat function, or by calling 101." Information can also be reported anonymously by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Thomas Joyce, 44, of Middleton, has been charged with affray.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge when he appeared at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

Mr Joyce was released on bail and will appear at Manchester Crown Court on September 2.

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Traveller feuds result in ‘far-reaching’ consequences for families, report finds

Feuding has led to mental health difficulties, homelessness, discrimination, injury and death, study warns.

Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman will address the Travellers Transforming Conflict conference at Dublin Castle on Tuesday. Photograph: Tom Honan

Traveller feuding is engaged in by a “minority” of the community with “far-reaching” negative consequences for the majority, a report on the issue has found.

These include mental health difficulties, homelessness, discrimination, injury and “in some instances” death, according to the study from the Traveller Counselling Service, Exchange House and the Traveller Mediation Service.

Social media is fuelling violence between some families, exacerbating the issue which has its root causes in the poverty, marginalisation and powerlessness, it says.

The report, The Impact of Traveller Interfamily Conflict on Individuals and Families, draws on research conducted in April and May 2023 with four focus groups as well as 38 in-depth interviews, including with 32 Travellers with direct experience or insight into violent feuding. Other interviewees included gardaí and members of Traveller organisations.

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The project arose following a 2019 conference on the issue and was “co-created by the three Traveller organisations and the ‘settled’ researcher [Dr Sarah Sartori, a researcher specialising in higher education at southeast Technological University]“.

Publication of the report on Tuesday will coincide with a conference, Travellers Transforming Conflict, at Dublin Castle on Tuesday to be addressed by Minister for Children and Equality Roderic O’Gorman .

The report says feuding is “historically linked to the culture of bare-knuckle fighting by which a male Irish Traveller upheld his family’s honour” but has evolved in recent years “to typically involve weapons, ramming of vehicles, destruction of property, that includes the setting of sites and homes on fire, and can result in loss of life, severe mental-health difficulties, and families forced to leave their homes”.

[  ‘We’re the original recyclers on the island’  ]

It adds: “In the absence of an alternative system of ‘conflict resolution’ because of well-founded mistrust of the police and of the criminal justice system, such oppositions are misunderstood by some in the community as an element of Traveller culture”.

“Only a minority of Travellers engage in inter-family violence, yet it . . . negatively impacts on virtually all sections of the Traveller community . . . Google ‘Traveller feud’ and you will instantly be brought to a spate of news articles, images and TikTok videos or ‘callouts’ provoking a member of a ‘rival’ family into a fight.”

It continues: “There is increasing recognition within the Traveller community that inter-family violent conflict is leading to widespread intergenerational trauma, seriously damaging mental health and undermining progress in . . . education and accommodation.”

Among the report’s nine recommendations are a campaign to bring “attitudinal change within the Traveller community” including “frank conversation within . . . about how to address the violence”. It calls for “tightening of social media . . . in relation to Traveller interfamily violence”; greater resources for culturally appropriate trauma-informed interventions for individuals and families; increased resources for Traveller mediation and counselling services, and, a targeted strategy to tackle racism against Travellers.

Among the factors behind the violence are the marginalisation and oppression of the community which are “internalised” leading some to oppress members of their own community – a phenomenon “reported to be common in Indigenous peoples the world over”, the report says.

“Communities with high levels of violence are also characterised by high levels of poverty, lack of adequate public services and educational opportunities, poorer health outcomes, asset and income inequality.”

It says: “Traveller interfamily conflict, is explicitly linked to poverty and lack of opportunity available to Travellers, and Government and public sector bodies have an obligation to tackle and reduce the high levels of prejudice and discrimination faced by Travellers in Ireland.”

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Kitty Holland is Social Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times

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'Knuckle' Joint: Traveller Clans, Endlessly At Odds

Scott Tobias

Battle-weary: Paul Joyce (left) and Mikey Quinn McDonagh spar for 47 minutes before a draw is called. Paul Nicholls/Allpix/ARC Entertainment hide caption

• Director: Ian Palmer
• Genre: Documentary
• Running Time: 97 minutes

Rated R; for violent content and language

With: James Quinn McDonagh, Paddy Quinn McDonagh and Michael Quinn McDonagh

Watch Clips

Note: Contains language some may find offensive.

'What I Call A Fight'

Credit: ARC Entertainment

'I'm No Good To Fight'

The question of access troubles Knuckle , a ragged documentary that offers viewers a tour through the world of Irish Travellers , with special attention paid to the bare-knuckle fistfights fueled by ongoing disputes between rival clans.

On the one hand, footage of these chest-thumping amateurs throwing down on back roads and in improvised clearings is rarely available to outsiders; it's a rare look at the mechanics of a modern-day tribal blood feud.

On the other, the Travellers reveal themselves only so much to the filmmaker, closing ranks whenever the camera threatens to uncover deeper truths about shady dealings and fractious inner circles. After 12 years on their trail, director Ian Palmer must have felt like something akin to a journalist covering a political campaign.

Back in 1997, Palmer was hired to videotape the wedding of Michael Quinn McDonagh, and soon became aware of the decades-long conflict between the Quinn McDonaghs and their rivals, the Joyces. The feud started with a manslaughter charge in London and spread across England and Ireland like a runaway bar brawl.

Though the nomadic families of Traveller culture can be extraordinarily insular and inbred — there's always talk of cousins and uncles of not-so-distant relation on the other side — the Quinn McDonaghs, the Joyces, the Nevins and other clans rally behind their names, professing a burning hatred for those who fight under a different banner. They have everything in common, yet repel each other like positive ions.

The "Fair Fights" between the families often unfold over several hours and multiple match-ups, with five-figure cash stakes up for grabs — though the money seems secondary to the pursuit of honor and revenge. The fights are conducted without any built-in breaks and are mediated by two neutral referees, who try to limit kicks, head-butting, biting and any extended grappling. (Non-competing family members are forbidden to attend, for fear that the feud will spill out into the crowd.)

The charismatic leader of the Quinn McDonaghs is James, an undefeated fighter first seen pummeling the face of a Joyce brother who's too ungainly to counter yet too prideful to concede. James boasts that he never calls for fights himself — and makes clear his intent to retire — but we can see how those calls keep coming anyway. Between fights, the clans exchange vicious "taunt videos," often recorded in boozy pub celebrations after they've just traded blows. And so the cycle repeats itself, with James and his brothers throwing themselves — and, by extension, their wives and children — into the middle of it.

The fights themselves are an anthropological wonder, a raw clash between men whose pugilistic skills rarely measure up to their beet-faced braggadocio. In voiceover narration, Palmer confesses that he's been so seduced by this hidden subculture that he's lost sight of everything else — and the film he's made unfortunately supports that revelation. There's never a sense that Palmer is witnessing something James or the other Quinn McDonaghs don't want him to see, especially when it comes to the women, who are largely kept out of view. Though Palmer recognizes that he's being manipulated, he's often powerless to stop it.

Nevertheless, Knuckle smuggles in some troubling footage when it can, as when Palmer finally listens in on the women at a family function and finds a few dissenting voices — or when he shows young boys eagerly shadowboxing for the camera, ready to battle on well into the 21st century.

For all their brutality, the fights are so seductive and exciting that their consequences — the physical and mental toll exacted from the men and their families — sometimes fail to register.

Yet Knuckle largely skirts exploitation, simply by virtue of showing this conflict perpetuate itself over so many years. Clans like the Quinn McDonaghs and the Joyces seem destined to fight for generations after they've forgotten their rationale.

Bare-Faced and Bare-Knuckled: Fighting Traveller Families

Don’t let the bandaged fist in the photo fool you. knuckle, ian palmer’s documentary about the bare-fisted boxing tradition of the irish travellers, might be about blood, but it’s not about gore. the blood palmer seems most interested in is the stuff that pumps through the veins of the intricately connected traveller community he visited and filmed over 12 years, a society where cousins marry, work together and, when the occasion arises, beat each other senseless..

Don’t let the bandaged fist in the photo fool you. Knuckle , Ian Palmer’s documentary about the bare-fisted boxing tradition of the Irish Travellers, might be about blood, but it’s not about gore. The blood Palmer seems most interested in is the stuff that pumps through the veins of the intricately connected Traveller community he visited and filmed over 12 years, a society where cousins marry, work together and, when the occasion arises, beat each other senseless.

“I wanted to make a film from inside their world,” Palmer told indie/WIRE when Knuckle premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. “The idea and the approach was simple. I spent as much time as I could with the families with a minimal crew and small camera.”

His approach resonated at HBO, which is adapting the documentary into a new drama series. Industry blogs hint that the HBO treatment will trend toward dark comedy, since it is being developed by writer Irvine Welsh (author of the gritty novel Trainspotting , on which the film of the same name was based), and director Jody Hill of Rough House Pictures, the project’s producer, whose politically incorrect comedy Easthouse & Down  also airs on HBO.

Knuckle will have its New York premiere on September 30 at Irish Film New York, which will feature five other recent Irish releases. This new screening series of contemporary Irish films is co-presented by New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House, and runs September 30 through October 2 at NYU’s Cantor Film Center.

Festival founder and curator Niall McKay, who is also the founder and director of the San Francisco Irish Film Festival and co-founder of the LA Irish Film Festival, said he deliberately chose films for the series that depict Ireland as it is today.

“I particularly wanted films that had a real physical effect on me,” he said, “ones that made me cry or laugh or get angry.”

“We’re pleased that Niall McKay has chosen to work with Glucksman Ireland House to present this excellent addition to the city’s arts scene,” said Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chair of the Glucksman Ireland House NYU Advisory Board. She praised the festival for presenting “works that would not otherwise be seen by a wide audience.  It should be an exciting experience for our Irish American community.”  

Besides Knuckle , Irish Film New York will also feature the New York premieres of the Galway Film Fleadh-winning Parked with Colm Meany, a study of a friendship between two men who live in their cars, and The Runway , the story of a downed pilot in Cork rescued by a little boy, with Weeds star Demián Bichir.  Other films include the bittersweet coming-of-ager, 32A , directed by Marion Quinn, a hilarious peek at Dublin teenagers called Pyjama Girls , and Sensation , about a man who tries to lose his virginity but ends up running a brothel. Directors and stars of the films will appear at Q&A sessions after each screening.

There will also be an industry panel in conjunction with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where filmmakers and producers will discuss the direction of Irish film at home and abroad. 

McKay says the mission of Irish Film New York is to expose American audiences to the best in Irish contemporary cinema and to give Irish filmmakers “a fair crack at the U.S. market.”  It will join with the San Francisco and Los Angeles Irish Film Festivals to bring the filmmakers of Knuckle , Parked , and The Runway on a tri-city tour in anticipation of each film’s U.S. release. Knuckle will appear in independent U.S. theatres this December, with The Runway and Parked following shortly after. Director Palmer admitted to Irish Independent Weekend that he did not approach the filming of Knuckle like an investigative journalist.

“It was more about observing the [Traveller] families and trying to let the life reveal itself. The reasons behind the fighting were difficult to get at. The feuds stretched back over generations. It was always about defending your name and family pride.”

The three rival families that he studied, the Quinn McDonaghs, the Nevins and the Joyces, are all related, often sharing the same grandparents. As one of the women remarks, “We’re all one in the end.” Even if a Nevin married a Quinn, or a Quinn has a mother who is a Joyce, the rationale for fighting rests on defending just one family’s name.

While Palmer is able to ferret out the powerful origin of one particular feud, the sources of the disputes don’t seem as important as the disputes themselves. “Would it not be possible for you guys to get together to talk about it and make up?” the director asks Michael Quinn McDonagh, on his way to a fight in England. “You’re crazy,” Michael laughs, dumfounded at Palmer’s naiveté.

The matches are called “fair fights” and are organized with unexpected formality: when a challenge is issued, it is promptly accepted, a date and location are set, and the fighters hit the gym to train weeks  before the match. Fair fights take place in secret locations with few onlookers. There are referees from neutral families and lots of rules. And everybody obeys the rules. Anyone who doesn’t is disqualified, and his family takes the loss.

Technology and money play crucial roles in this tradition-bound ritual: Families exchange videotaped challenges and fight results are reported by cell phones. Bets are negotiated for astonishing amounts of cash; winner (and family) takes all.

The fighters accept Palmer’s presence with the nonchalance of a generation bred on reality TV.  But despite his desire to let the story emerge from the people themselves, they never forget the camera is there. Dodging it, challenging it, playing with it, they turn the camera – with narrator Palmer – into another character in the film.

Palmer said it was only during editing that he realized that the narrative would work better if he allowed himself to be an obvious part of his film. “The film is more honest for accepting that Knuckle is my experience of this world,” he said, “and my relationship to the people in the film and how that affected me.”

His “shaky cam” character dances around the fair fight scenes with a perilous immediacy. At any moment, you expect a fist to fly into the lens. Because he interviews both families involved in a fight, Palmer never appears to be taking sides. Even though he follows one fighter’s story more closely than others, he is not making a fight movie. There is no  Big Match to decide it all, no good guys or bad.    James Quinn McDonagh, the soft-spoken man whose winning battles form the core of the film, says over and over again he doesn’t want to fight, but is provoked into it by the other families, claiming he’d like “to be known for something more positive.”

James doesn’t like to train either. “I’d rather be socializing,” he quips. But when a challenge comes from the Joyces or the Nevins, he comes out with fists blaring. “It’s the best way to sort things out,” he explains. Even after he swears off fighting, he is seen anxiously prepping his brother by cell phone before a fight, exclaiming as he waits for the results, “Grandfathers in Heaven, send Michael the power!” 

Why do the fights continue? Palmer sees “fair fighting as still mainly about family and individual honor and pride,” a deeply felt emotion expressed here in macho posturing: “We will fight because we are men, we’re Joyce men.”

Then there’s the fast cash from the betting. The suggestion of inconsistent employment implies that fighting is a needed source of income, and might also be a way to establish self-respect when the outside world offers too little.

But within a closed community, the flip side of self-respect can be a cult of personality. Joe Joyce, an older man who nevertheless continues to fight, boasts, “I’m still King of the Travellers!” One of James’ opponents, the dewy-faced youngster, Davy Nevins, says the fights are not about revenge.

“James thinks he’s better than us,” he explains calmly. “People think he’s a god.  I don’t want to defeat the Quinns, I just want to defeat James.”

Some Nevins relatives suggest a possible link between being a Traveller and the need to keep fighting. When an old man muses, “There’s always been wars,” the younger Spike Nevin replies, “But we’re Travellers. At least wars are about something. Something right.”

Conspicuously absent from the film are Traveller women, who are reluctant to appear on camera. Yet, the only strong voices condemning the fighting come from a sofa full of older women gathered for an after-fight party. “I think it should end,” one woman states firmly. “All this fighting over names. It’s an awful life to have. It should be finished.”

“I don’t know what they’re fighting for,” James’ mother adds.

“When my sons grow up, they aren’t doing it,” a much younger woman declares with convincing resolution. But she quickly adds a caveat, “If I can help it.” 

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Fears shooting could escalate Traveller feud in Clare: 'Tensions are extremely high'

Exclusive: 'Two families are involved in this particular feud and now tensions are extremely high' a source told this paper.

• 06:00, 29 AUG 2023

There are fears of an increase in violence in a Traveller feud in Co Clare after a man was shot and extensive damage caused to a number of homes and vehicles.

The shocking incidents happened in the Deerpark area of Ennistymon shortly after 6pm on Sunday.

A number of people were in the Deerpark area possessing a number of weapons including at least one firearm, according to gardai.

READ MORE: Gardai backtrack on Disneyland patrol plans after public backlash

This firearm was discharged and a man in his 50s was taken to University Hospital Galway with non-life threatening injuries.

And during the course of a number of reported incidents in the area, extensive damage was caused to a number of residents and vehicles.

“Two families are involved in this particular feud and now tensions are extremely high after a man was shot and a number of properties and vehicles were damaged,” a source said.

“There are now serious fears of an escalation in this feud following Sunday night’s violence.”

In a statement, An Garda Siochana confirmed a man was injured and properties and vehicles were damaged as a result of the violence.

“Shortly after 6pm, it’s reported a number of persons were in the Deerpark area, Ennistymon in possession of a number of weapons including at least one firearm,” the statement from An Garda Siochana said.

“During the course of a number of reported incidents in the area, extensive damage was caused to a number of domestic residences and vehicles.

“A firearm was also discharged and a man in his 50s was later taken to University Hospital Galway with non-life threatening injuries.”

Gardai preserved a number of scenes for technical examinations and investigations are continuing at Ennistymon Garda Station.

Gardaí are also appealing for any witnesses to any of these incidents to come forward.

Any road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling in the Deerpark area of Ennistymon on the evening of Sunday, August 27 are asked to make this footage available to Gardaí.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Ennistymon Garda station on 065 7072180, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.

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Traveller feud turns housing estate into ‘devil’s playground’ as families live in fear of hatchets & spears in Westmeath

• Gary Meneely
• Published : 7:30, 15 Apr 2021

FAMILIES are living in fear of a bloody Midlands Traveller feud that has turned their peaceful housing estate into a “devil’s playground”.

Shock footage shows thugs armed with hatchets and spears running amok in a private housing estate in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.

Outraged local councillors told the Irish Sun members of the Travelling community were behind the mayhem in Ardleigh Park last weekend.

Horrified families in the estate are living in fear amid the chaos - with the area being branded as “like the devil’s playground” by worried public representatives.

And Mick Dollard - a member of Westmeath County Council - called for the local authority to launch a review of Travellers being placed in social houses in private housing estates.

'VERY UNFAIR'

Cllr Dollard - who is on Westmeath County Council’s Traveller Consultation Committee - told the Irish Sun: “I know all about it, I’m one of the councillors on the ground.

“Travellers have been moved into the area, that’s where the problem is coming from.

“There’s a mixture of private and social houses in the estate. I would say there needs to be a review of the allocation of social housing to Travellers.

“It is very unfair to people who have mortgages, trying to rear their kids, get jobs - everyone in the area is being tarred with the same brush unfortunately.

"People looking in will say they’re all bad in Ardleigh Park but that’s not true. There are decent families in the middle of this."

Locals fear someone will be killed unless the authorities “get a grip” of the Traveller dispute in the area.

Cllr Dollard said: “It is very serious, very serious indeed.

“You have people putting shutters up on their windows to prevent attacks, that’s how bad it is and it is only making things worse.

CALLS FOR ACTION

“The people I feel most sorry for are the families who have big mortgages, getting their kids educated, trying to make a good life and you have these animals creating mayhem.

“It is terrifying people, they are a law unto themselves. It’s like the devil’s playground for them.

“We need a multi-agency approach to this, a joined up approach. The local authority, community groups, the gardai - we need everyone involved.

“It is horrifying what is going on.”

Other councillors called for the guards to “come down hard” on the thugs captured on camera running riot.

Cllr John Shaw told the Irish Sun: “I’ve seen the footage, it is very disappointing. Mullingar would be regarded as a very good town. It is a minority involved in doing stuff like that.

'VERY SERIOUS'

"You would hope that the Guards take a strong hand in relation to the people who are doing it.

"That sort of stuff should be stamped out straight away, Covid (restrictions) or no Covid, that sort of stuff cannot be tolerated.

“It is very, very serious. It does not reflect well on the estate or Mullingar in general. But it is not par for the course, most people in that estate and in Mullingar are good, hardworking law abiding people.

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"Incidents like this just portray a very bad image which is not really reflected on the ground. These are isolated incidents but still they have to be rooted out. And you would hope that the guards come down very hard on them.

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“It is a private estate, it would be regarded as a good estate. But obviously there is a feuding issue there.

"It is very disappointing for the residents of the estate to see the likes of that going on. There are small children there, it happened in daylight hours, it is very distressing for families living in the area.”

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Interview: "Knuckle" Director Ian Palmer Talks Bare-Knuckle Boxing & Irish Traveller Feuds

Find out why generations of Irish nomads bloody their fists on each other's faces.

Image via Complex Original

In the 2000  Guy Ritchie movie Snatch , Brad Pitt played a shady, barely intelligible Irish gypsy bare-knuckle champion, Mickey O'Neil, to great comedic effect. Despite similarities to the character, you wouldn't want to laugh at the real, and very proud, men, known as Travellers, who inspired him. Not only do they pack a mean punch, but they also hold a grudge better than most.

In his documentary Knuckle , out now in the U.S., Irish filmmaker Ian Palmer takes viewers inside the secretive Traveller world, where men from different clans regularly square off in fights to make money, but primarily to defend their family's honor and knock the stuffing out of rivals they bitterly hate. Palmer spent over a decade with the Quinn McDonagh , Joyce , and Nevin families to document not only the scraps but their impact upon the Traveller community. Complex spoke to him to discuss the origins of the feuds, the diss videos families make, and why the cycle of violence won't ever stop. 

Interview by Justin Monroe ( @40yardsplash )

They were very open, and they all lived in a group housing scheme, as they call it in Ireland. It was a group of houses with all the cousins and brothers and aunts and uncles living together. I just started hanging out with those people, and we got along very well. They had a big collection of photographs, and I was very interested in looking at that and starting to tell stories, using their photographs. That’s really where I got to know Travellers first, in 1996.

When one of the girls from one of their extended families, Jacqueline, was getting married to her first cousin [Michael], her parents asked me did I want to go down to the wedding [and film]. I said yes, I did and at the wedding I met James, and that’s how I met the brothers. At that time I didn’t know anything about bare-knuckle boxing, but I found James and Michael and a few of their buddies intriguing, interesting characters. I just wanted to get to know more Travellers at that time, and they asked me to come along for the training session James was having.

I think it was because I wasn’t a journalist looking for some kind of a story. I wasn’t knocking on the door desperately trying to get in. That was one of the reasons why they felt more comfortable with me, and it was a process of getting to know them and them getting to know me, and shooting a fight, and then starting to talk to them about making a film. It was just a process of one step after another.

Were there individuals who were wary of you, or issues that people were hesitant to talk to you about? When I shot the first fight, I started talking to the broader family about [the idea of shooting a film]. I’d say, “Look, this is an amazing way of carrying on, families that are very closely related, all getting intermarried, and at the same time fighting each other. I’d love to explore the fights and the whole culture in a film.” A lot of the older people, who I got to know first, said, “Yeah, it is a great idea for a film, but they’ll never let you do it, the guys.” Funnily enough, the guys involved in the fights, they didn’t really have any hesitancy at all. They were confident in what they were doing.

{ "id": 132293715 } The Quinn McDonaghs were continually telling me about this guy Big Joe Joyce and what a ferocious, unpredictable guy he was and how it would be very dangerous for me to go meet him.

The aspect of their lives that they didn’t want filmed was the whole moneymaking side of life. They’re all…let’s call it “self-employed businessmen” doing whatever it takes to try to make a dollar. [ Laughs. ] That was kind of off limits, apart from the basic work they’d be doing, which would be landscape gardening or building work, that kind of thing.

The other aspect which was difficult to film—it wasn’t that it was out of bounds, it was just difficult—was women. Within Traveller culture, women are still protected in some ways. They’re chaperoned before they’re married and then expected not to go out in a way men can just go out and socialize. They don’t do that on their own. And so me being a single man at that time, that was probably.... If I had a female co-partner I think I might’ve gotten more footage with women. But then again, as the thing evolved, it was always gonna be a film about the male side of Traveller life anyway.

And you did eventually get a scene of women sitting around and discussing their opinions of the fights. Yeah, the fact is you only need to get that kind of scene once to get that kind of insight. The insight that the older women gave me was crucial to the film. [In contrast to] the bravado that came out of the men, it showed the destructive side of this whole activity. The women who talked, one was James’ mother, and the other was his aunt Nelly, and what they said was very, very touching. For me, in some ways it’s my favorite scene in the film.

How did you get that footage? It was just one of those things that happens. I’d been out filming all day and it’d been quite a stressful day. I’d been refused access to a big fight. I came back and shot the aftermath there with everyone watching the footage on a TV set up outside the trailer. Then all the guys and the younger women went to the pub and I just stayed back to have a cup of tea before wrapping up and going home. The women had been hyped up before that and they were all calming down. They were talking and I stuck my camera on my shoulder and asked, "Is that OK?" They said OK, and they just opened up in front of me.

With this kind of filming, you have to put yourself in position enough times for things to happen. A fella who filmed this stuff with me at one point said my approach was almost like wildlife filming. You’re out in the prairie and waiting for a lion to come by and jump on an antelope, and you have no control over that. You just have to wait and hope.

But once I plucked up the courage to lift up the phone and say, “Look, this is who I am and this is what I’m hoping to do,” he, as the leader of his family, was totally open. He said, “Come on down.” I went down to his house with a camera and he allowed me to film with him straightaway, and then on numerous times I revisited. I was accepted by Big Joe Joyce the same was I was accepted by James.

Then the second of the feuds is the Quinn McDonaghs versus the Nevins. Again, I lifted the phone and I made a phone call. I met them beforehand to have a chat to see if I could come down [and film them]. The first time I met them with a camera is the scene in the caravan where all the guys are sitting around talking. They were just telling their story, and it opened up like that.

It was difficult to make the first step, but once that first step was made, each other step opened up. I always had enough access to the other families to give the film a sense of balance.  

One of the Nevins men, nicknamed Spike, was rather memorable because he says he think the feuds and fights are pointless.   Were there many men who were opposed to the fights? I did find plenty of men who had the point of view that they really shouldn’t be doing this. It’s gone around in a circle, and they're all cousins anyway. But there were very few of them who were gonna articulate that well enough to be persuasive about it. James is a very articulate guy, Spike is a very articulate guy, he has a beautiful way of telling stories and kind of a melancholy about him, and a sadness, as you rightly pointed out. 

Big Joe Joyce didn’t have that side at all. He relished fighting and still does; it really is the whole center of his being, and his sons are the same. I never found anyone on the Joyce side who would have that sense, at least not in that particular branch of the Joyces. 

{ "id": 132293713 } In 1992, both families were living in the same house together, side by side. They were friends. It was a quarrel in a pub which got out of hand and went outside and the poor fella got killed.

Did you get the sense that Spike and James were trying to express that sentiment to their families? James would talk in that way with his family in an intelligent way. You have to remember, James’ sisters married into the Joyce family. At the end of the film, his younger brother Michael is fighting Big Paul Joyce. At the end of the fight, James is saying, “Maggie, a draw is probably for the good. It might settle things down.” He’s talking to his sister Maggie, and Maggie is married into the family of Big Paul Joyce.

So there’s that closeness there. Certainly with James, there’s a big realization that, if you don’t lose and you don’t win, that’s OK. It is about being triumphant over the opposition but it’s really about not losing. They are, when it comes down to it, very close. The same grandparents, the lineage traces back two, three generations.

When pressed about the hate between the families, James eventually opened up to you about a 1992 pub fight in London in which one of the Quinn McDonaghs tragically killed one of the Joyces. Did you find that the young fighters today have a sense of that history, and the animosity that dates back even further, or are they simply fighting to show their clan pride and manliness? It has become that, I think, but there are recorded clashes between the families going back every decade into the ‘60s and ‘50s and probably before that. I certainly never found out from anyone the first point which started it all off. The 1992 clash, which is a clash between friends really—James’ brother Paddy, who was jailed for manslaughter for the killing of one of the Joyce’s in 1992, they were living in the same house together, side by side, both families. They were friends. It was a quarrel in a pub which got out of hand and went outside and the poor fella got killed.

That then set in motion a chain of events that took over that generation of the two families for the next two decades, from ’92 up until I stopped filming in 2010 really. It’s difficult to find a beginning point, but certainly there were fights and fighting between the families going back several generations at least. And I suspect, if you could look back in time, you’re gonna find clashes all the way back. It’s just the way Traveller men operated. It’s a physical, hearty kind of life and people and they express themselves in this physical way.

The fighting was the thing that got me hooked inititally. Then I filmed the first fight (right), when James beat the opponent easily and won the money; he went back to the pub in Dundalk, which his family was running at the time, and it was like a homecoming of a hero. It was like Cú Chulainn coming back, out of Irish mythology. It really felt like that. That really was what attracted me. I wanted to find out and understand why, in these big families, someone would be at the pinnacle like that. It doesn’t really happen in ordinary families that somebody is on a pedestal like that.

These people really are representing their family and it’s everything on the line. If the Joyces had managed to take James out over the years, it would’ve been game, set, match, even if there’d been 50 fights and the Quinn McDonaghs had won 49, and James had lost the other one. It would’ve been a disaster. So it is really quite different from fighting for a living, which is what professional boxing is all about. This is fighting for…it’s a real guts thing, it’s a heart thing. It has that added thing of families and generations and the whole epic sense of the Traveler world.

So there was something romantic about it all for you? Yeah. I had a bit of a background studying anthropology at one point in time, and I would’ve been interested in the Travellers as a people I could make films about and it be an enclosed enough world to be able to explore in a kind of controlled way. I’m not sure about romantic, but I would’ve been favorable towards the idea of the group of people that doesn’t have anything to prove and wants to survive in their old traditional way. Even though they weren’t travelling, they still thought of themselves as nomadic, almost mentally nomadic. 

But I’ve made two other films about Travellers, and my romanticism kind of left. I’m much more realistic about their world. I see the particular world I explored in Knuckle as a very destructive world. It’s full of honor and people fighting because they’re there to represent their families and all of that, but it really doesn’t solve anything, it doesn’t come to any conclusion. It takes over society and families while these things are happening.

When James would be training, or Michael, or any of the other guys, you have almost every man along to watch their sessions in the gym, wherever that would be. It’s easy to look at it in a romantic way; I’m looking at Facebook pages now and there are lots of people lionizing James and the Traveller way of life. That’s all very well, but I think James would be the first to say, "Forget about it, if possible." The problem is, these guys can’t walk away from it, not really. Their sons, grandsons, great grandsons are just as likely to be fighting in something similar. There are fights every weekend I could go to. So I’m not so romantic about it anymore. I see it more as just an endemic activity.

Where did that money come from? And what are the ramifications if it’s lost? The money comes from the extended family, so it’s not like one person is gonna be cleaned out for life of all the money he ever could get together. You get a lot of people who pitched in €1,000, €500, whatever they could come up with.

If one family had lost €90,000, it certainly would’ve fueled a huge amount of additional tension and probably fighting. Partly they would’ve been wanting to fight to regain some of the money, but also because they’d lost the money, it would’ve been exultation on the other side that they’d taken their money to such an extent. So it ups the ante in terms of the ramifications if you’re gonna lose that much money.

When James was fighting in 2000, he’s fighting against the young challenger, the son of a man he’d beaten years before, Davey Nevins. There’s a scene where I was filming James in the gym, he’s sitting on the edge of the ring, the apron, he turns to me and tells me, “I was really pissed off this morning. I got one of my mates to ring the Nevins to try to add another IR£10,000." He was obviously confident he was gonna win it but he also hadn’t been able to work for the last couple of weeks, and he was trying to pick up an extra few bob.

The bet wasn’t taken and that gave it away that maybe the Nevins weren’t as confident as he was, so it helped in that way. But he was thinking about the money he wasn’t making through his landscape gardening or nightclub security or whatever else he was organizing at the time. So yeah, it has a big effect. The core of the Traveller economy actually is social welfare. Most Travellers would be getting social welfare support. But certainly when everyone is getting sucked in, it is very destructive to the economy. Things go by the way until training is over.  

One of the most interesting parts of the Traveller culture is that families continually make insult and challenge videos and send them to their rivals , just like rappers do on diss songs or street DVDs. What is the origin of the videos? The first video of a Traveller fight, so far as I’m aware, was 1990. It’s very old, grainy footage, but it’s on YouTube. One of the guys who was fighting was one of the old guys who appear halfway into my film. Big Joe Joyce fights a smaller, older man. The smaller guy, Aney McGinley, fought in the famous fight in 1990.

{ "id": 132293712 } The [diss] DVDs are made and they get copied and they spread out among the various families, partially to insult and get a reaction and partly as entertainment value.

It’s only after that fight that small cameras started to become available. Somewhere in the ‘90s, these fight insult tapes started to happen. But that’s a thriving activity at the moment. There’s DVDs, especially from the Joyces—they have a bit of a line in putting out DVDs insulting various people they want to fight. It’s a big activity still.

In fact, in the end of the film, in Curly Paddy’s trailer, it just happened spontaneously that Paddy came in with this portable DVD player and stuck it down on the table, and he had just received the DVD you see with Big Joe challenging anyone to fight, just an old man desperate for a fight. And that’s really what happens: The DVDs are made and they get copied and they spread out among the various families, partially to insult and get a reaction and partly as entertainment value. It’s nothing to do with Curly Paddy because Joe was challenging and insulting another family but he wanted to see that tape, and that’s what happens. Those are part of the landscape of Traveller entertainment. [ Laughs. ]

Has that practice moved to Internet platforms like Facebook and Twitter now? I have seen people insulting each other on Facebook. I’d say almost everybody seems to be on Facebook. Lots of kids, but lots of the older fellas as well. Twitter, I haven’t seen any Travellers on, but they may be. On YouTube, there’s certainly lots of both fight and insult tapes posted. The Joyces and their current opponent are putting up insult tapes all the time. So they’re very active on social media.

Do most of the people hurling insults actually fight? This is what happens: Usually, very often the morning of a fight, every member of a family gathers together to wherever the fighter is gonna be to give them a sendoff, and very often there’s a camera there, and almost always people will talk into the camera saying what they think, and some people get out of control and say stuff about someone in the other family, and that’s how that footage sometimes is gathered together, from that kind of environment.

People who aren’t particularly involved in the fighting that day or maybe not at all, everyone’s getting a head up and they’re having their say. So yeah, there’s plenty people who talk. There’s not so many who fight, although there’s plenty of Travellers who go out for a bare-knuckle fight. The default sport for Travellers is ring boxing as they’re growing up. And they’re very successful at it, young Traveller boys, and then as they get into their teenage years and their early manhood, have been very successful; they’re winning national championships. The last Olympics, there were several Travellers both on the English and the Irish teams.

You have over a decade of footage. Is there any one thing you wish you could’ve fit into the film that you weren’t able to? There were a few scenes. The Quinn McDonaghs came over from Ireland to fight the Joyces in Luton, which is near London. We got off the ferry and were heading down and they went into a place in North Wales where Travellers go, a monastery with a holy well in the center of it that goes back to the Middle Ages. It wasn’t hot weather but they all stripped off and each of them in turn bent down and a bucket of water was thrown over their head for luck for the fight coming up. I didn’t get the scene well enough. I really wish I’d gotten it because it just gave it another level of tradition. That’s one thing I missed.

There’s another scene I do regret not putting in, but it slowed the momentum of the film. A film takes on its own momentum and you’re heading to a point, which for me was the Michael vs. Big Paul fight, and then the aftermath with James reflecting on it. As we’re going towards the fight in Luton, Michael and James got into a big argument that really summed up the relationship between the two of them, this conflict of a younger brother trying to prove himself as good as his older brother, and who was gonna be the dominant of the two. I regret not putting that scene in, but it slowed the momentum of the film. Just in terms of the narrative structure, it didn’t stay in, but it did tell you something else. Maybe it'll be a DVD extra.

{ "id": 132293714 } The King of the Travellers is a bit of a myth. There’s no number one Traveller fighter in Ireland. It doesn’t exist like that, because you’re never up against all of the best, the 10 best guys in the country. You’re only gonna be up against them if they happen to be in the rival families.

Big Joe was far older than many of the man he was challenging to a fight. What was the biggest age difference you saw in the fights? There was a fight I didn’t include in the film, in the middle of Dublin, near Guinness’ brewery. It was an older man who fought against a man in his early 30s, and this man was in his mid or early 50s. It was a hell of a fight, and in fact the older man won. He’d been a boxer in his youth. Having got knocked down a few times, he then came back to win it. That was probably the biggest gap, nearly 15-20 years. The two oldest guys fighting were obviously Big Joe and Aney McGinley in the woods in the film. But they were of the same age, two grandfathers having it out.

Were those two anomalies or do most of these men fight that long if they can? Nah. If you think about it, you’re talking normal regular people, they’re not professional athletes, they don’t have a network of support. For the most part they have to go out and make a living, they’ve got children. They’ve got a social life, so they’re not fighting on into forever. I think also, just the aggression which young men inevitably have to some extent makes its way into bare-knuckle fighting. It’s another aspect of why they’re fighting, to prove themselves in the context of the feuds. I mean, they’re proving themselves, but always against the same few families.

People talk about King of the Travellers—it doesn’t really exist. There’s no number one Traveller fighter in Ireland. It doesn’t exist like that, because you’re never up against all of the best, the 10 best guys in the country. You’re only gonna be up against them if they happen to be in the rival families. The King of the Travellers is a bit of a myth. You’re a kind of a king in your own clan if you’re the best guy; Big Joe, they refer to him as the King, but really they’re just talking about him as being their leader or their kind of icon in their family.

With so much footage, how did you finally decide you could stop and tell a cohesive story? I had to stop out of desperation to get on with my life. I think I’d still be filming fights if I hadn’t found a way to stop. There were lots and lots of fights that had nothing to do with the feud that was going on, and I wouldn’t even look at the footage. At a certain point I was doing that and I just lost track of the reason I got into it in the first place.

It was really a stroke of luck when Michael [Quinn McDonagh] decided to challenge Big Paul [Joyce], because that gave me a potential end. It was a 10-year cycle in these two young men’s lives, their whole 20s. My focus was on the older brother [James] and inadvertently I was there long enough to see the younger brother [Michael] grow up from an 18-year-old, rosy-cheeked boy getting married to the father of a young boy who he holds in front of the camera and says, “Here is the next bare-knuckle champion.”

Again, one of those moments, one of those occasions where if you’re there long enough, something might just happen that’s interesting, and Michael coming out with his week-old boy and holding him in front of the camera was, for me, just an unbelievable moment.

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Rebel Voice

World magazine of choice, irish traveller bare-knuckle fights.

In the culture of the Irish Travelling people, who are a nomadic ethnic group, bare-knuckle boxing is commonplace as a means of settling disputes between individuals, families and clans.

Although criticized, the alternative within the travelling community can often be fights involving weapons such as bill-hooks, hatchets, knives and guns. People have died as a result of these feuds.

There is usually a set of rules in use during fights, known as ‘Fair Play’. It effectively means that the contests are standard boxing bouts with no gloves used. The contest ends when one combatant is knocked out or gives up. Some fights can last for hours, with severe injuries being inflicted upon those fighting.

The fights are illegal, and so are usually held where the authorities cannot, or will not come upon them. It may be strange to see such illegal contests shown online, yet such is the nature of the conflict. A new development to the fights is the ‘calling out’ of fighters via online videos in which one family or clan issues a challenge to another. Sadly, even children are included in the ‘calling out’, and children are often present at the fights themselves.

Feuds between families and clans can last for generations and the violence might escalate. Some families might be connected via marriage, and this can intensify the rivalries.

It is a brutal world, and shows no signs of ending. The videoing of the fights is now a business in its own right and, when added to the sizeable wagers made on the fights, means that there are relatively large sums to be made from what is a fight industry. Occasionally, some travellers might become involved in the amateur boxing scene and even the pro-circuit. There have been Olympic champions that have emerged from the travelling community. The former world heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson Fury, is from an Irish Travelling background.

The following documentary provides us with a great insight into the world of the Irish Traveller, and their participation in bare-knuckle boxing.

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24 Hours of Turmoil: Putin Caves, His ‘Chef’ Goes Into Exile

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The Kremlin has caved to Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and said criminal charges against him for his attempted military coup will be dropped.

Vladimir Putin ’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, announced the news Saturday in comments to the TASS news agency, claiming Prigozhin will be leaving the country soon and going to Belarus.

He said he had no idea what Prigozhin will do in Belarus. The relocation was apparently part of the deal Prigozhin brokered with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in order to halt Wagner’s advance on Moscow. Putin gave his “word” that Prigozhin will be allowed to leave for Belarus, Peskov said.

The Kremlin also said all Wagnerites who took part in the uprising will be spared from criminal charges.

The latest development came after Prigozhin abruptly announced that he was ready to turn his forces back around from a march towards Moscow and call off the mutiny.

“We turning our columns around and going back in the other direction toward our field camps, in accordance with the plan,” he said in a message on Telegram.

The news came after the Belarusian government claimed President Alexander Lukashenko had reached a deal with Prigozhin to halt the advance.

“This morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin briefed his Belarusian counterpart on the situation in southern Russia with the private military company Wagner,” the statement said. “The heads of state agreed on joint actions.”

“As a follow-up to the agreements, the President of Belarus, having being additionally informed on the situation through his own channels, and in agreement with the President of Russia, held talks with the head of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin,” the statement continued. “Yevgeny Prigozhin accepted the proposal of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to stop the movement of armed persons of the Wagner company on the territory of Russia and take further steps to de-escalate tensions.”

It is unclear at this stage what the Russian President conceded to strike the deal with Prigozhin.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on Twitter that the retreat was a strange decision. “You almost nullified Putin, took control of the central authorities, reached Moscow and suddenly... you retreat. Because one very specific intermediary with a dubious reputation ( #Lukashenko ) promised security guarantees from the person ( #Putin ) who ordered to destroy you in the morning. Although not without benefit: #Prigozhin humiliated Putin/the state and showed that there is no longer a monopoly on violence...”

I suspect this is far from over. Putin cannot accept an armed insurrectionist, Prigozhin can’t accept the possibility of being eliminated if he lets his guard down. Wagner contingents smell blood & money & aren’t happy with this outcome. Then Kadyrov, what lesson did he learn. — Alexander S. Vindman ❎ (@AVindman) June 24, 2023

It came after Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin ordered residents to stay inside as Putin told Russia about an “armed mutiny” led by former confidante Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries advancing on the city.

Sobyanin had announced on Telegram that Monday would be a “non-working day”, except for security services and other authorities, amid what he called a “counter-terrorist operation.”

“I ask you to refrain from traveling around the city as much as possible,” Sobyanin wrote . Authorities are on “high alert,” he added, describing the situation in Moscow as “difficult.”

After the announcement, Telegram was reported to be facing technical difficulties. “Some of our users in Europe have been experiencing connection issues for the past 10 minutes,” the app shared on Twitter.

Residents of Moscow were urged to remain indoors and stay home from work on Monday .

Earlier on Saturday, Putin conceded that the insurrection meant his regime was up against “the toughest battle for its future.”

Before the speech played out, Wagner mercenaries were seen descending with no resistance on Rostov-on-Don, Russia’s southern military HQ, which has been co-ordinating the invasion of Ukraine. Once inside the key command center, Prigozhin recorded a message saying it was under his control.

This insurrection, which began after Prigozhin claimed his men had been struck by a missile fired by the Russian military, is the clearest threat to Putin’s power since he assumed the presidency in 2000.

In the wake of this news, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that he had spoken to the G7 Foreign Ministers, as well as Joseph Borrell, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy.

“The United States will stay in close coordination with Allies and partners as the situation continues,” the Secretary of State tweeted Saturday morning.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also called Moscow on Saturday. Erdogan showed his support for Putin, Kremlin’s information service reported on Saturday.

Erdogan “expressed full support for the steps taken by Russian leadership,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin said he had already issued the order for the military to respond to the organizers of the uprising with “harsh measures.”

“All those who deliberately set out on the path of betrayal will suffer inevitable punishment,” he said.

Unconfirmed social media footage showed an apparent explosion at an oil depot in Vorenezh and a possible missile strike on a Wagner column headed for Moscow.

Prigozhin boasted that Russian citizens were backing his march towards Moscow, during which he said Wagner had not attacked any of Russian soldiers. “Why is the country supporting us? Because we walked on the march of justice, and they hit us, first with artillery then aviation,” he said. “And we marched on without a single shot, we didn’t touch a single conscript.”

What to Know About Prigozhin and Putin’s Twisted Relationship

Britain’s Defence Intelligence agency said Wagner units were moving north through Vorenezh Oblast in the direction of Moscow. “With very limited evidence of fighting between Wagner and Russian security forces some have likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner,” the intel report said. “This represents the most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times.”

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate claimed that it had seen evidence that Moscow was preparing for a siege of the Russian capital.

For the first time since the splits between Wagner and the Russian Defense Ministry bubbled to the surface, Prigozhin called out Putin directly on Saturday.

Responding to the president’s address, he shot down the Kremlin’s authority.

“No one is going to turn himself in at the request of the president, the FSB or someone else, no one wants to continue to live in corruption and deceit,” he said. “Those who oppose us are those who have gathered around the scum.”

The scale of the fear within Moscow’s elite was captured by the Kremlin’s number one propagandist Vladimir Solovyov who recorded a video of himself racing back to Russia from Ukraine . “I wasn’t expecting to live to see this kind of thing. Our country is at war,” he said.

Looking for historical parallels, he cited the revolt which led to Russia’s 1917 revolution and Mussolini’s successful coup d’état, the March on Rome.

“Are we really going to allow civil strife now and lose our country?” he asked. “There is nothing more frightening than civil war.”

After months of feuding between the mercenary boss and Russia’s Defense Ministry , things came to a head on Friday night when Prigozhin accused the Russian military of ordering a rocket strike on a camp full of his men, and vowed merciless revenge.

Prigozhin said he was “ready to die” along with 25,000 fighters prepared to stage a mutiny and stop the “evil” leading the failed war effort in Ukraine.

Within hours, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced charges against Prigozhin for attempting to incite an armed rebellion, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars. Top Russian military brass released video appeals calling on Prigozhin to surrender, or for his own men to detain him and hand him over. State-run media aired an emergency broadcast relaying the same message.

But Prigozhin showed no sign of backing down, instead releasing a series of audio messages via his press service in which he accused the Defense Ministry of deploying fighter jets to shoot at Wagner vehicles in the Rostov region and of firing at civilians on Russian territory.

“If someone gets in the way, we will destroy everything that gets in the way. We reach out a hand to everyone, no need to spit in that hand. We are going all the way,” he said, later adding: “We’re all ready to die, all 25,000! And then there will be another 25,000!”

Local media reported checkpoints being set up late Friday night on a highway that leads from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, and the territory around the Kremlin was reportedly closed off to visitors for the foreseeable future. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said “anti-terrorism measures” were being carried out to boost security in the capital, while residents in the Rostov region were urged by the governor to stay at home.

In a fiery voice memo, Prigozhin claimed to have lost a “huge” number of soldiers in the rocket strike at a Wagner camp—an attack Moscow denies orchestrating.

Yevgeny Prigozhin at a recent funeral in Moscow.

Prigozhin said, “Those who destroyed our lads, who destroyed the lives of many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers, will be punished. I ask that no one offer resistance.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Prigozhin’s claims “do not correspond to reality and are an informational provocation.”

It’s unclear what the internal ructions mean for fighting on the ground in Ukraine, which has already become rife with infighting between Russian soldiers and Wagner mercenaries. Just last week, Prigozhin vowed to defy an order from Russia’s Defense Ministry to fall under the regular army’s command, saying he’d instead take defectors under his wing and create his own ranks.

Prigozhin said Friday that his “march for justice” will not impede the operations of Russian military troops in Ukraine, but Wagner fighters have been integral to Russian advances—and alleged atrocities—on the front lines.

The mercenary leader escalated his defiance on Friday, asserting that military leaders were “deceiving the public and the president” about why a war with Ukraine was necessary in the first place. He accused military leaders of fear-mongering about a potential Ukrainian invasion that was never coming to justify launching an invasion of their own.

Referring to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu by name, Prigozhin said Russia invaded Ukraine “for the self-promotion of a bunch of bastards.” He added that the operation was poorly planned and “embarrassing.”

“Shoigu killed thousands of the most combat-ready Russian soldiers in the first days of the war,” Prigozhin said. “The mentally ill scumbags decided, ‘It’s OK, we’ll throw in a few thousand more Russian men as ‘cannon fodder. They’ll die under artillery fire, but we’ll get what we want.’”

Ex-Marine Reveals Crushing Sneak Attack on Putin’s Men

While the drama between Moscow and Prigozhin played out, Ukrainian officials announced Friday their forces had retaken eight villages from Russian control as part of their first counteroffensive. Top Ukrainian officials conceded this week that gains have been slow, but indicated the attack’s main push is yet to come.

“The counteroffensive is not a new season of a Netflix show,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak posted to Twitter . “There is no need to expect action and buy popcorn. Offensive operations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue in a number of areas. Formation operations are underway to set up the battlefield. Time is always important… especially in war.”

Hanna Maliar, a deputy defense minister, reportedly said on Ukrainian TV on Friday that the “main blow is still to come.”

If the Russian army is focused elsewhere that can only help Ukraine’s push.

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Long-Simmering Feud Between Canelo Alvarez and Oscar De La Hoya Finally Boils Over

Dan gartland | may 3, 2024.

LAS VEGAS – In 2010, Oscar De La Hoya, then a 30-something ex-fighter early in his new career as a full-time promoter, stood in a ballroom at the MGM Grand and declared a then 19-year old Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez to be the future of boxing. 

On Wednesday, some fourteen years later, De La Hoya and Álvarez stood in the same room on the same dais, only this time it was De La Hoya addressing stinging remarks at Álvarez and Canelo leaping out of his seat to confront him . 

Officially, Wednesday’s press conference was to promote Álvarez’s super middleweight title defense against Jaime Munguía. What it turned into was Álvarez and De La Hoya ripping the band-aids off old wounds. The relationship between the two has been frosty since Álvarez split from De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in 2020 , with the two regularly sniping at each other through the press. Sharing a stage for the first time in five years, the tension quickly boiled over. 

Addressing reporters, De La Hoya, Munguía’s co-promoter, quickly took aim at Álvarez. He questioned why Álvarez had spent so much time focused on him. He noted that Munguía was ready to face Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018, when Álvarez was pulled from the fight following two failed drug tests. He reminded Álvarez, who developed into boxing’s most bankable star in ten years with De La Hoya, that Golden Boy “built” him. That company, De La Hoya said, has always had one name. 

“It’s mine,” De La Hoya said, “so put some f---ing respect on it.”

Álvarez, predictably, reacted angrily. He called De La Hoya an “imbecile.” He reminded De La Hoya that he was a star before he started working for Golden Boy. He accused De La Hoya of stealing from fighters, including Golovkin, Álvarez’s longtime rival, and those still working with him should “lawyer up.”  Later, when a PBC interpreter sanitized the translation, Álvarez grabbed a mic and addressed the room in English.  

“He tried to steal money, and he’s a f---ing ass----,” Álvarez said. “That’s what I said. He’s a f---ing ass----. He tried to [bring] attention to him, not for Munguía. He’s a f---ing ass----. He steals from his fighter. That’s what he [does]. F---ing p---y mother------.”

Oscar De La Hoya and Canelo Alvarez have heated words for each other and have to be separated at the #CaneloMunguia press conference. pic.twitter.com/QKGApkXOYS — Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 1, 2024

On Thursday, De La Hoya’s attorney’s sent Álvarez a cease-and-desist letter, demanding that Canelo “retract his defamatory allegations that Oscar stole from boxers.” Álvarez’s lawyer, Greg Smith, responded by telling ESPN that Canelo “said what he said.”  

Indeed, a simmering feud between two of boxing’s biggest names has become a full on war. In 2010, Golden Boy celebrated Álvarez’s signing. It was called “a historic day” in a press release. De La Hoya declared Álvarez to be a “star.” Álvarez said the chance to work with Golden Boy “was too good to pass up.” 

In 2014, the bond between De La Hoya and Álvarez seemed stronger than ever. During a power struggle inside Golden Boy—a civil war that saw longtime CEO Richard Schaefer exit and many of the company's top stars, who were represented managerially by Al Haymon, leave with him—Álvarez sided with De La Hoya. That decision, a longtime Golden Boy employee told Sports Illustrated “saved the company.” With Álvarez on board, Golden Boy was able to maintain its relationship with HBO and rebuild its stable. 

In 2019, the relationship went south. Álvarez grew weary of De La Hoya’s public struggles with drugs and alcohol. A committed fighter—Álvarez’s signature slogan is “no boxing, no life”—Álvarez questioned De La Hoya’s commitment to his own work. “A betrayal,” is how a source close to Álvarez framed his feelings this week. When Álvarez found a way out of his contract in 2020, he never looked back. 

On Wednesday, De La Hoya copped to his failings. He said he had been to rehab. “Several times,” De La Hoya said. He agreed that he had failed as a promoter “when work was not my priority based on my mental health, which I had neglected for so long.” But he reminded Álvarez of the success he achieved with Golden Boy, both in the ring, where Álvarez became a three-division world champion, and out of it. In 2018, Golden Boy negotiated a historic 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN. 

Said De La Hoya, “He seems to have trouble remembering who helped him become a true global star.”

De La Hoya has other motives for antagonizing Álvarez. Munguía (43–0) is a heavy underdog against Álvarez (60–2–2). Munguía, 27, is young, aggressive and heavy handed but doesn’t have a fraction of the experience of Álvarez, 33, whose resume includes Golovkin, Floyd Mayweather and Dmitry Bivol. Getting under Álvarez’s skin, says De La Hoya, was part of the plan. 

“Hopefully,” said De La Hoya, “it worked.”

Perhaps. Canelo–Munguía will be a firefight. Munguía has evolved into a dangerous offensive fighter in recent fights. He defeated former title challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko last year—a fight hailed by many outlets as the Fight of the Year—and last January knocked out the durable John Ryder. Against Ryder, Munguía’s first fight with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, Munguía flashed some defensive skills. 

But Canelo is not Derevyanchenko. He’s not Ryder. He may not be the pound-for-pound No. 1 who stormed through three divisions between 2018 and 2021 but he’s still quick, heavy handed with an elite ring IQ. De La Hoya believes Álvarez’s best days are behind him. On Saturday, Munguía will be the one who finds out. 

“He’s walking in quicksand now,” De La Hoya said of Álvarez. “His injuries are catching up to him. He’s an old 33. You can be old depending on your wars. I think the stars are aligned for Jaime Munguía to take advantage of this situation Saturday.”

DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland writes Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, and is SI’s pro wrestling editor. Dan holds a degree in Communications and Media Studies from Fordham University.

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Irish America

Bare-Faced and Bare-Knuckled: Fighting Traveller Families

October 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Filmed carefully over a period of twelve years, the documentary Knuckle sheds light on the inner workings and on-going feuds of three Irish Traveller clans. Up next for the film: a New York premiere and an HBO spin-off series.

Don’t let the bandaged fist in the photo fool you. Knuckle , Ian Palmer’s documentary about the bare-fisted boxing tradition of the Irish Travellers, might be about blood, but it’s not about gore. The blood Palmer seems most interested in is the stuff that pumps through the veins of the intricately connected Traveller community he visited and filmed over 12 years, a society where cousins marry, work together and, when the occasion arises, beat each other senseless.

“I wanted to make a film from inside their world,” Palmer told indie/WIRE when Knuckle premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. “The idea and the approach was simple. I spent as much time as I could with the families with a minimal crew and small camera.”

His approach resonated at HBO, which is adapting the documentary into a new drama series. Industry blogs hint that the HBO treatment will trend toward dark comedy, since it is being developed by writer Irvine Welsh (author of the gritty novel Trainspotting, on which the film of the same name was based), and director Jody Hill of Rough House Pictures, the project’s producer, whose politically incorrect comedy Easthouse & Down also airs on HBO.

Knuckle will have its New York premiere on September 30 at Irish Film New York, which will feature five other recent Irish releases. This new screening series of contemporary Irish films is co-presented by New York University’s Glucksman Ireland House, and runs September 30 through October 2 at NYU’s Cantor Film Center.

Festival founder and curator Niall McKay, who is also the founder and director of the San Francisco Irish Film Festival and co-founder of the LA Irish Film Festival, said he deliberately chose films for the series that depict Ireland as it is today.

“I particularly wanted films that had a real physical effect on me,” he said, “ones that made me cry or laugh or get angry.”

“We’re pleased that Niall McKay has chosen to work with Glucksman Ireland House to present this excellent addition to the city’s arts scene,” said Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chair of the Glucksman Ireland House NYU Advisory Board. She praised the festival for presenting “works that would not otherwise be seen by a wide audience. It should be an exciting experience for our Irish American community.”

Besides Knuckle, Irish Film New York will also feature the New York premieres of the Galway Film Fleadh-winning Parked with Colm Meany, a study of a friendship between two men who live in their cars, and The Runway, the story of a downed pilot in Cork rescued by a little boy, with Weeds star Demián Bichir. Other films include the bittersweet coming-of-ager, 32A, directed by Marion Quinn, a hilarious peek at Dublin teenagers called Pyjama Girls, and Sensation, about a man who tries to lose his virginity but ends up running a brothel. Directors and stars of the films will appear at Q&A sessions after each screening.

There will also be an industry panel in conjunction with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where filmmakers and producers will discuss the direction of Irish film at home and abroad.

McKay says the mission of Irish Film New York is to expose American audiences to the best in Irish contemporary cinema and to give Irish filmmakers “a fair crack at the U.S. market.” It will join with the San Francisco and Los Angeles Irish Film Festivals to bring the filmmakers of Knuckle, Parked, and The Runway on a tri-city tour in anticipation of each film’s U.S. release. Knuckle will appear in independent U.S. theatres this December, with The Runway and Parked following shortly after.

Director Palmer admitted to Irish Independent Weekend that he did not approach the filming of Knuckle like an investigative journalist.

“It was more about observing the [Traveller] families and trying to let the life reveal itself. The reasons behind the fighting were difficult to get at. The feuds stretched back over generations. It was always about defending your name and family pride.”

The three rival families that he studied, the Quinn McDonaghs, the Nevins and the Joyces, are all related, often sharing the same grandparents. As one of the women remarks, “We’re all one in the end.” Even if a Nevin married a Quinn, or a Quinn has a mother who is a Joyce, the rationale for fighting rests on defending just one family’s name.

While Palmer is able to ferret out the powerful origin of one particular feud, the sources of the disputes don’t seem as important as the disputes themselves. “Would it not be possible for you guys to get together to talk about it and make up?” the director asks Michael Quinn McDonagh, on his way to a fight in England. “You’re crazy,” Michael laughs, dumfounded at Palmer’s naiveté.

The matches are called “fair fights” and are organized with unexpected formality: when a challenge is issued, it is promptly accepted, a date and location are set, and the fighters hit the gym to train weeks before the match. Fair fights take place in secret locations with few onlookers. There are referees from neutral families and lots of rules. And everybody obeys the rules. Anyone who doesn’t is disqualified, and his family takes the loss.

Technology and money play crucial roles in this tradition-bound ritual: Families exchange videotaped challenges and fight results are reported by cell phones. Bets are negotiated for astonishing amounts of cash; winner (and family) takes all.

The fighters accept Palmer’s presence with the nonchalance of a generation bred on reality TV. But despite his desire to let the story emerge from the people themselves, they never forget the camera is there. Dodging it, challenging it, playing with it, they turn the camera – with narrator Palmer – into another character in the film.

Palmer said it was only during editing that he realized that the narrative would work better if he allowed himself to be an obvious part of his film. “The film is more honest for accepting that Knuckle is my experience of this world,” he said, “and my relationship to the people in the film and how that affected me.”

His “shaky cam” character dances around the fair fight scenes with a perilous immediacy. At any moment, you expect a fist to fly into the lens. Because he interviews both families involved in a fight, Palmer never appears to be taking sides. Even though he follows one fighter’s story more closely than others, he is not making a fight movie. There is no Big Match to decide it all, no good guys or bad.

James Quinn McDonagh, the soft-spoken man whose winning battles form the core of the film, says over and over again he doesn’t want to fight, but is provoked into it by the other families, claiming he’d like “to be known for something more positive.”

James doesn’t like to train either. “I’d rather be socializing,” he quips. But when a challenge comes from the Joyces or the Nevins, he comes out with fists blaring. “It’s the best way to sort things out,” he explains. Even after he swears off fighting, he is seen anxiously prepping his brother by cell phone before a fight, exclaiming as he waits for the results, “Grandfathers in Heaven, send Michael the power!”

Why do the fights continue? Palmer sees “fair fighting as still mainly about family and individual honor and pride,” a deeply felt emotion expressed here in macho posturing: “We will fight because we are men, we’re Joyce men.”

Then there’s the fast cash from the betting. The suggestion of inconsistent employment implies that fighting is a needed source of income, and might also be a way to establish self-respect when the outside world offers too little.

But within a closed community, the flip side of self-respect can be a cult of personality. Joe Joyce, an older man who nevertheless continues to fight, boasts, “I’m still King of the Travellers!” One of James’ opponents, the dewy-faced youngster, Davy Nevins, says the fights are not about revenge.

“James thinks he’s better than us,” he explains calmly. “People think he’s a god. I don’t want to defeat the Quinns, I just want to defeat James.”

Some Nevins relatives suggest a possible link between being a Traveller and the need to keep fighting. When an old man muses, “There’s always been wars,” the younger Spike Nevin replies, “But we’re Travellers. At least wars are about something. Something right.”

Conspicuously absent from the film are Traveller women, who are reluctant to appear on camera. Yet, the only strong voices condemning the fighting come from a sofa full of older women gathered for an after-fight party. “I think it should end,” one woman states firmly. “All this fighting over names. It’s an awful life to have. It should be finished.”

“I don’t know what they’re fighting for,” James’ mother adds.

“When my sons grow up, they aren’t doing it,” a much younger woman declares with convincing resolution. But she quickly adds a caveat, “If I can help it.”

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• A Complete Track-by-Track Timeline of Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s Feud

As you may have heard, Drake and Kendrick Lamar are in the throes of an intense (and seemingly never-ending) rap battle . Though the two artists have long been at odds , this latest chapter ignited in March with the release of “Like That,” which quickly kicked off an incendiary back-and-forth that can be difficult to keep up with. Here, we break down the play-by-play of this beef by track — the most recent of which is Drake’s “ The Heart Part 6 .”

“Like That,” by Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar (March 22, 2024)

The powder keg that set off this particular chapter of the Drake–versus–Kendrick Lamar beef was the song “Like That,” from Future, Metro Boomin, and Lamar. On it, Lamar dismisses the notion that he’s in a “Big Three” with Drake and J. Cole, rapping, “It’s just big me.” He also compares himself and Drake to Prince and Michael Jackson, respectively, rapping, “Prince outlived Mike Jack.”

“Push Ups,” by Drake (April 13, 2024)

After several weeks, Drake fired back by mysteriously leaking “Push Ups,” which featured the lyrics, “You ain’t in no Big Three, SZA got you wiped down, Travis got you wiped down, Savage got you wiped down / Like your label, boy, you in a scope right now / And you gon’ feel the aftermath of what I write down / I’m at the top of the mountain, so you tight now / Just to have this talk with yo’ ass, I had to hike down / Big difference between Mike then and Mike now.” Drake also went after Lamar’s work on pop songs from the likes of Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift, as well as throwing a stray dig at Rick Ross with the lyric “I might take your latest girl and cuff her like I’m Ricky / Can’t believe he jumpin’ in, this nigga turnin’ 50 / Every song that made it on the chart, he got from Drizzy.” Ross fired back just hours later with a diss track of his own accusing Drake of getting plastic surgery — but let’s try to stay on topic here.

“Taylor Made Freestyle,” by Drake (April 19, 2024)

While waiting on Lamar’s response to “Push Ups,” Drake also put out the since-deleted track “Taylor Made Freestyle,” on which he used the AI-generated voices of Lamar’s idols Tupac and Snoop Dogg to go after him — earning a cease and desist from Shakur’s estate. After those A.I. verses, Drake came in with his own voice to accuse the rapper of not responding to his original diss because he didn’t want to interfere with the release of Taylor Swift’s  The Tortured Poets Department . “Now we gotta wait a fucking week cause Taylor Swift is your new top, and if you boutta drop, she gotta approve,” he rapped. Swift has of course not responded — having famously always wished to be excluded from the narrative when it comes to being name-checked in rap songs. While the song has since been taken down, Snoop Dogg’s reaction is thankfully still up.

“6:16 in LA,” by Kendrick Lamar (May 3, 2024)

Making fun of Drake’s penchant for using times and locations in his song titles, “6:16 in LA” arrived just days after “Euphoria,” delivering on that track’s promise to go “ back to back .” It was notably produced by Jack Antonoff, which feels like an acknowledgement of Drake’s repeated Taylor Swift references. In the song, he claims to have operatives inside Drake’s label, rapping, “Have you ever thought that OVO was working for me? / Fake bully, I hate bullies / You must be a terrible person / Everyone inside your team is whispering that you deserve it.”

“Family Matters,” by Drake (May 3, 2024)

Drake responded with the nearly eight-minute track “ Family Matters ,” which suggested that Lamar’s child was actually fathered by his manager, Dave Free. He also honed in on Lamar’s relationship with his fiancée, Whitney Alford, alleging infidelity and abuse with lyrics like “You the Black messiah wifing up a mixed queen / And hit vanilla cream to help out with your self-esteem / On some Bobby shit, I wanna know what Whitney need,” and “When you put your hands on your girl, is it self-defense ’cause she’s bigger than you?”

“Meet the Grahams,” by Kendrick Lamar (May 4, 2024)

Lamar didn’t give us much time to sit with Drake’s last diss, putting out “Meet the Grahams” just hours later — which continued the theme of going after each other’s families right from the top by telling Drake’s son, Adonis, he’s sorry Drake is his father. Speaking of children, the track also alleges that Drake has a secret daughter, a claim Drake responded to via Instagram Story, writing, “Nahhhh hold on can someone find my hidden daughter pls and send her to me … these guys are in shambles 🤣🤣🤣.” Lamar also circled back to his cosmetic-procedure digs, rapping, “Get some discipline, don’t cut them corners like your daddy did / Fuck what Ozempic did / Don’t pay to play with them Brazilians, get a gym membership.”

“Not Like Us,” by Kendrick Lamar (May 4, 2024)

Not even 24 hours after releasing “Meet the Grahams,” Lamar had more to say with the brutal “Not Like Us.” In it, he makes explosive accusations against Drake with lyrics like “Certified Lover Boy, certified pedophiles,” “Say, Drake, I hear you like ’em young / You better not ever go to cell block one,” and “Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.” He also circles back to Drake’s use of AI to re-create Tupac’s voice on “Taylor Made Freestyle,” rapping, “You think the Bay gon’ let you disrespect Pac, nigga? I think that Oakland show gon’ be your last stop, nigga.”

“The Heart Part 6,” by Drake (May 5, 2024)

Drake has responded to Kendrick’s response to his own response to Drake’s response to … there’s another one. “The Heart Part 6” is a play on Lamar’s “The Heart” series, which runs throughout his albums. The last “Heart” song came on Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers and had a music video that featured AI deepfakes of OJ Simpson, Kanye West, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, and Nipsey Hussle. So AI is going to be a leitmotif of this feud, apparently. In “The Heart Part 6,” Drake alleges that the hidden-daughter rumor was started by his own team in a sort of false-flag operation. “You gotta learn to fact check things and be less impatient,” he raps.

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Heavy fighting in Gaza keeps Rafah aid crossings closed as 100,000 civilians flee

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Heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants on the outskirts of the southern Gaza city of Rafah has left crucial nearby aid crossings inaccessible and caused over 100,000 people to flee north, United Nations officials said Friday.

With nothing entering through the crossings, food and other supplies were running critically low, aid agencies said.

The World Food Program will run out of food for distribution in southern Gaza by Saturday, said Georgios Petropoulos, an official with the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Rafah. Aid groups have said fuel will also be depleted soon, forcing hospitals to shut down critical operations and bringing to a halt trucks delivering aid across south and central Gaza.

The United Nations and other agencies have warned for weeks that an Israel assault on Rafah, on the border with Egypt near the main aid entry points, would cripple humanitarian operations and cause a disastrous surge in civilian casualties. More than 1.4 million Palestinians — more than half of Gaza’s population— have been sheltering in Rafah, most after fleeing Israel’s offensives elsewhere.

Heavy fighting was also underway in northern Gaza, where Hamas appeared to have once again regrouped in an area where Israel already launched punishing assaults.

Israel’s move into Rafah has been short of the full-scale invasion that it has planned. The United States is deeply opposed to a major offensive and is stepping up pressure by threatening to withhold arms to Israel.

But the heavy fighting has shook the city and spread fear that a bigger assault is coming. Artillery shelling and gunfire rattled throughout the night into Friday, an Associated Press reporter in the city said.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said more than 110,000 people have fled Rafah. Families who have already moved multiple times during the war packed up to go again. One woman held a cat in her arms as she sat in the back of a truck piled with her family’s belongings about to head out.

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The full invasion hasn’t started “and things have already gotten below zero,” said Raed al Fayomi, a displaced person in Rafah. “There’s no food or water.”

Those fleeing erected new tents camps in the city of Khan Yunis — which was half destroyed in an earlier Israeli offensive — and the town of Deir al Balah, straining infrastructure.

The international charity Project Hope said its medical clinic in Deir al Balah had seen a surge in people from Rafah seeking care for blast injuries, infections and pregnancies.

“People are evacuating to nothing. There are no homes or proper shelters for people to go to,” said the group’s Gaza team leader based in Rafah, Moses Kondowe.

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The Biden administration paused a shipment of bombs to Israel over concerns about a potential assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

May 8, 2024

Petropoulos said humanitarian workers had no supplies to help them set up camp in new locations.

“We simply have no tents, we have no blankets, no bedding, none of the items that you would expect a population on the move to be able to get from the humanitarian system,” he said.

Israeli troops captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, forcing it to shut down. Rafah was the main point of entry for fuel.

Israel says the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing — Gaza’s main cargo terminal — is open on its side, and that aid convoys have been entering. It said trucks carrying 200,000 liters of fuel were allowed to enter the crossing Friday.

Hamas says it accepts cease-fire as Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah

Hamas says it will accept a cease-fire agreement in Gaza, just hours after Israel ordered civilians in eastern Rafah to evacuate. Israel has yet to accept the terms.

May 6, 2024

But the U.N. said it is too dangerous for workers to reach the crossing on the Gaza side to retrieve the aid because of Israel’s incursion and the ensuing fighting with Hamas.

Israeli troops are battling Palestinian militants in eastern Rafah, not far from the crossings. The Israeli military said it had located several tunnels and eliminated militants in close combat and with airstrikes.

Hamas’ military wing said it struck a house where Israeli troops had taken up position, an armored personnel carrier and soldiers operating on foot. There was no comment from the Israeli military.

It is not possible to independently confirm battlefield accounts from either side.

Hamas also said it launched mortar rounds at the Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel’s military said it intercepted two launches. The crossing was initially closed after a Hamas rocket attack last weekend that killed four Israeli soldiers.

Israel says Rafah is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza and key to its goal of dismantling the group’s military and governing capabilities and returning scores of hostages captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war .

But Hamas has repeatedly regrouped, even in the hardest-hit parts of Gaza.

Heavy battles erupted this week in the Zeitoun area on the outskirts of Gaza City in the northern part of the territory. Northern Gaza was the first target of the ground offensive, and Israel said late last year that it had mostly dismantled Hamas there.

The north remains largely isolated by Israeli troops, and the U.N. says the estimated 300,000 people there are experiencing “full-blown famine.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to proceed with the offensive with or without additional U.S. arms, saying in a defiant statement late Thursday that “we will fight with our fingernails” if needed. The U.S. had stepped up weapons deliveries to Israel throughout the war, and the Israeli military says it has what it needs for a Rafah assault.

The war began with Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which it killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostage. The militants are still holding some 100 captives and the remains of more than 30 after most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Israel’s bombardment and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Much of Gaza has been destroyed and some 80% of Gaza’s population driven from their homes.

Israel’s incursion into Rafah complicated what had been months of efforts by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt to broker a cease-fire and the release of hostages. Hamas this week said it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel says the plan does not meet its “core” demands. Several days of follow-up talks appeared to end inconclusively Thursday.

Hamas has demanded guarantees for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as part of any deal — steps Israel has ruled out.

Associated Press writer Shurafa reported from Rafah and Krauss from Jerusalem. AP writer Stephen Graham in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Ukraine war latest updates: Russia launches surprise advance on Ukraine - but why has Moscow opened up second front in war?

Russia has launched an attack in Kharkiv away from recent battlegrounds, Ukraine has said - as Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists his forces were "prepared" for the assault. Two civilians have been killed in the attack, a local governor has said.

Friday 10 May 2024 22:01, UK

• Putin's military launched an advance away from the frontline in the early hours of this morning
• Ukraine says its forces are fighting to repel the attack on the Kharkiv region
• Russian forces have advanced a kilometre, according to Ukrainian sources
• Analysis: Why has Russia opened up second front in war?
• Sky's Deborah Haynes witnesses terror in attacked town as evacuations under way
• Ukraine's president says forces were 'prepared' for assault
• Ed Conway : Russian oil still seeping into UK - the reasons why sanctions are not working
• Live reporting by Jess Sharp and (earlier)  Narbeh Minassian

We're pausing our coverage of the Ukraine war for today. 

We'll be back with any major updates overnight, and we'll resume our regular live updates tomorrow morning. 

Thanks for following along. 

In our previous post, we told you about a reported Ukrainian strike on the occupied region of Luhansk. 

Now, Russian news agencies have quoted officials as saying three people have been killed and seven others have been injured. 

According to Russian state media, the attack triggered a large fire at an oil storage depot in the region.

"The enemy opened fire on the peaceful city of Rovenky," Russia installed regional Governor Leonid Pasechnik wrote on Telegram. 

"Because of the shelling, the oil depot was engulfed by flames and nearby houses were damaged."

Ukrainian bloggers and Telegram channels reported the strike, saying the oil depot was directly hit. 

It was the second such attack in three days.

On Wednesday, an attack on an oil depot in the regional centre of Luhansk injured five people.

Mr Pasechnik reported at least one of the dead was an employee at the depot. 

The Ukrainian military has launched a strike and triggered a fire near an oil storage depot in the occupied Luhansk region, Russian state news agency TASS has reported. 

Ukrainian bloggers and Telegram channels said the depot in the town of Rovenky was hit. 

Several photos have emerged online appearing to show a large blaze, but these have not been verified by Sky News. 

In Vovchansk, Ukrainian officials have been helping civilians evacuate due to the heavy shelling.

The border town in the Kharkiv region came under intense attacks. 

In his evening address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi had reported to him that "heavy fighting" was taking place all along the more than 1,000-km (600-mile) front line.

Ukraine chased Russian troops out of most of the Kharkiv region in 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion in February of that year.

But after weathering a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year, Russian forces are back on the offensive and slowly advancing in the Donetsk region that lies further south. 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has issued an updated statement on the situation in Kharkiv. 

In a post on  Telegram , the Ukrainian president said Russian troops have tried to expand their operations. 

But he added that Ukraine understands the "scope of the occupier's forces". 

"We see his plan," he said. "Our soldiers, our artillery, our drones respond to the occupier." 

He also said Ukrainian forces were adding their "strength" along the state border and the entire frontline near Kharkiv. 

"We will invariably destroy the occupier in such a way as to thwart any Russian offensive intentions," the 46-year-old leader wrote. 

"Everything depends on the stability of our soldiers, and everyone who holds a position now protects the position of all of Ukraine.

"It is important that partners support our soldiers and Ukrainian stability with timely supplies. Really timely. The package that really helps is the weapons brought to Ukraine, not just the announcement of the package." 

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked Joe Biden after a $400m military aid package was announced by the US. 

The Ukrainian president said the assistance will "help save civilian lives" and strengthen troops on the frontline. 

"The United States maintains its leadership role in supporting Ukraine and this has historic significance," he added. 

This is the third tranche of aid for Ukraine since Congress passed supplemental funding in late April after months of gridlock.

The package includes: 

• High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and rockets for them
• Munitions for Patriot and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems
• Anti-aircraft and anti-tank munitions
• An array of armoured vehicles, such as Bradley and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles
• Coastal and riverine patrol boats
• Demolition munitions
• High-speed anti-radiation missiles
• Protective gear, spare parts and other weapons and equipment

The weapons are being sent through presidential drawdown authority, which pulls systems and munitions from existing US stockpiles so they can go quickly to the war front. 

By Deborah Haynes , security and defence editor, in Vovchansk

Terror and grief were the overwhelming emotions from dozens of mainly elderly men and women who fled the Ukrainian border town of Vovchansk after Russian forces attacked.

Gathered at an evacuation point just outside the town, they said it had been the fiercest fighting they had ever experienced since the full-scale invasion.

Sky News followed a pair of volunteer rescuers, who drove a white van into the tow to help residents evacuate.

Smoke hung over the road on the way – we were told all roads into Vovchansk were being targeted by Russian artillery, rockets and drones.

One of the attacks had ignited a fire in a forest that lined the road, sending clouds of smoke into the air.

The streets of the part of the town we entered were almost completely empty.

We pulled into a residential area of bungalows.

A group of five elderly men and women sat or stood on a bench on the side of the road, seemingly happy to stay put.

The rescue team pulled up outside an address where they had been told four residents wanted to be evacuated.

They knocked on the door, but no one replied. Instead, a petite, grey-haired woman who lives in the next door house pushed open her green gate and told the rescuers that her neighbours had already gone.

Distraught, Valentina, 74, had no plans to leave, but the rescuers managed to persuade her.

"Let's go, don’t stay here, it is dangerous," they said.

Suddenly there was a boom – it seemed to change her mind.

Gathering a few simple belongings, she was led out of her home and into the minibus.

The mayor said some 500 people from the town have been evacuated since the attack began, but he said the town’s population was 3,000, with many more yet to leave.

Evacuation operations are set to continue.

By Sean Bell , military analyst 

At 5am, the Russians launched a surprise attack on the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, killing two civilians and injuring at least five others. 

The Ukrainian border community of Vovchansk was one of the targets - this community is only 5km away from the Russian border, and the attack led to the evacuation of 3,000 residents. 

Russian forces are reported to have advanced around 1km, before Ukrainian reinforcements were deployed.

So why has Russia opened up a second front in the war?

There are probably two key reasons for this latest Russian attack.

First, the Russian border town of Belgorod is a logistics hub for Russian military activity, and is regularly targeted by artillery from Ukrainian territory.

President Putin has long promised to create a buffer zone to push Ukrainian forces out of artillery range, which would limit the attacks on this frontier town. 

Secondly, although most analysts believe Russia would struggle to seize Kharkiv, the attack does force Ukraine to spread its limited resources across a broader front, leaving it more vulnerable to further attacks.

Russian's priority still appears to be the Donbas - a primary objective of what it calls its special military operation. 

Russia's military are evidently exploiting the window of opportunity created by Ukraine's current shortage of weapons, and are reported to be preparing for a major summer offensive. 

Ukraine's strategy appears to be to trade territory for time, making Russia pay a high price for every metre of ground seized, pending the arrival of the West's next delivery of military aid.

But, momentum and initiative are vital commodities in war, and Russia has both at this crucial juncture.  Ukraine is on the back foot, and could face a very difficult next few weeks on the battlefield.

The UK's foreign secretary, Lord Cameron, said last week Ukraine has a right to use British-supplied weapons against targets inside Russia.

Referring to those comments, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev warned the West against greenlighting Ukrainian attacks on its territory using Western-supplied weapons.

After what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the US, Russia said earlier this week it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise.

These exercises are to work out Russia's response to any attacks on the country using weapons supplied by the West, Mr Medvedev claims.

He said the Russian response would "be aimed not only at Kyiv" - and took personal aim at Lord Cameron.

"I remember this guy quite well. I worked with him when he became prime minister. An ordinary dull Brit. At that time, he was joyfully stupid and looked like a young devil who was revelling in his unexpectedly acquired position," he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, which has been translated.

"Under certain circumstances, the response [to such attacks] will be aimed not only at Kyiv," he added.

He added: "And not just with conventional explosives, but also with a special kind of arms."

As we have been reporting throughout the day, Russian forces gave started the first stage of an operation in Kharkiv. 

Fierce fighting has been taking place in parts of the northeastern region, and Ukrainian officials have claimed Russian troops have advanced by 1km. 

Leading US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War has said evidence indicates the initial Russian attacks have been carried out for reconnaissance and not as a major drive to seize Kharkiv city. 

It has also suggested five objectives Russia might be trying to achieve with the operation: 

• To thin out Ukrainian forces along the 600-mile frontline, and create opportunities in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
• Draw Ukraine forces towards Vovchansk in Kharkiv to facilitate Russia's efforts to seize Kupyansk - another city in Kharkiv. 
• Create a demilitarised or sanitary buffer zone in Ukraine.
• Instil panic in Ukraine.
• Set conditions for a larger future offensive on Kharkiv. 

The ISW added that Russia was unlikely to take control of Kharkiv city. 

Open source data suggests Moscow's forces have an insufficient number of troops in nearby areas to seize it, the thinktank added. 

"If the Russian command intended to seize Kharkiv city, then Russian forces would have likely also attacked to the west and northwest of Kharkiv city as well," it said. 

It also explained that Russia's use of its airspace for the Kharkiv attacks highlights the "urgent need" for the US to provide more long-range air defences to Ukraine. 

"Ukraine would be better able to defend Kharkiv oblast if Ukrainian air defenders could intercept Russian aircraft in Russian airspace before they drop their glide bombs," it added.

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• Entertainment

Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn's Mother, Couch Trailer Teases a Wild Family Feud (Exclusive)

'Mother, Couch,' which begins playing in theaters in July, also stars Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, Taylor Russell, Lake Bell and F. Murray Abraham

Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn are part of a wild ensemble in their new movie.

On Friday, May 10, Film Movement shared the trailer for McGregor's new movie Mother, Couch exclusively with PEOPLE. The film stars Academy Award-winning Burstyn, 91, as a mother whose tension with her children — portrayed by McGregor, 53, Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle — comes to a head when she suddenly refuses to stand up from a couch during a visit to a furniture store.

Bewildered by his mother's bizarre insistence on staying at the store, David (McGregor) enlists his siblings to speak with their mother and convince her to leave to no avail. When David suggests they will carry Burstyn's character out of the store, the family matriarch promises she will fight them if they physically touch her — leading the siblings to hopelessly coordinate to determine the source of her discontent.

An official synopsis for the film describes the characters as members of a "dysfunctional family" whose relationships are put to the test when Burstyn's character refuses to leave the store.

Film Movement

"Reluctantly assembled, her three estranged children – David, Gruffudd (Ifans) and Linda (Flynn Boyle) – must figure out how to escape this bizarre predicament," the synopsis reads. "With the help of the store managers and their daughter Bella, the siblings embark on a mind-bending odyssey that forces them to face life-altering truths about their own lives and upbringing."

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Mother, Couch marks the debut feature film for its writer-director Niclas Larsson, who tells PEOPLE that the film is "is genuinely a response to today’s mainstream story market.

"I had to make something bold for my directorial debut," Larsson adds. "Something unexpected and unseen. In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t imagine doing that without this remarkable cast. It has been a wild ride and it is a wild ride we present to the audience. I cannot wait to get this strange and beautiful story out in the world."

Lake Bell , Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham and Taylor Russell also appear in the new movie as part of its all-star cast.

Mother, Couch opens in theaters in New York City July 5. The film expands to Los Angeles on July 12 and will begin playing in theaters around the country throughout July and August.

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‘I bet Drake heard it and laughed’: BBL Drizzy is the real winner of the Drake-Kendrick feud

The comedian Willonius Hatcher’s parody song is a phenomenon in its own right, with artists around the world creating their own versions

O ver the last month, the Drake v Kendrick Lamar rap battle has dominated the discourse in music and culture so completely that even a parody offshoot track about the rap battle has become a hit. BBL Drizzy, a song with Motown-style production and 70s soul album cover, has become a vehicle for anyone to join in on the fun of dissing Drake. The song features a Levi Stubbs -like character braying the lines: “I’m thicker than a snicker / I’m thicker than you, ninja / Don’t act like you don’t know me / These yams deserve a trophy / Baby it ain’t no mystery / Got the best BBL in history”

“It’s so ridiculous and over the top,” says Willonius Hatcher, the comedian behind the song. “You can’t help but laugh.”

BBL Drizzy pic.twitter.com/0gPBUlk6VF — Avocado Papi 🥑 (@KingWillonius) April 14, 2024

When the rap battle ended on Saturday with Kendrick sealing victory, Hatcher figured his BBL Drizzy moment was over. But then on Sunday, the producer Metro Boomin remixed the song to further humiliate Drake , who dismissed the sought-after artist as a run-of-the-mill beatmaker. Ordinarily, Metro’s remix – faster, higher-pitched and more percussive – would be the kind of thing he’d sell for a minimum of six figures. But in the spirit of spite, he posted it on the internet on one condition: “best verse over this gets a free beat,” he posted on X.

The bounty, which Metro has since upped to $10,000 and a beat for first place, and a free beat for the runner-up, has talents of all stripes rushing to take turns to dunk Drake like a cop at the county fair in an assortment of musical genres. SoundCloud rappers are crushing him in different languages, including Japanese – wagyu beef, perhaps. In one viral video, the instrumental plays over a girl performing a classical Indian dance . In others: the Duolingo owl twerks over the beat ; a nun serves . The R&B artist Masego uses it as a backing track for a two-and-a-half-minute sax solo , a genre that rivals shredding on the electric guitar . Madison McFerrin, Bobby’s soul-singing daughter, has made a run . One kid riffs over the track in sign language .

What’s more, all of this piling on is in addition to the usual onslaught of jokes , memes and jigs roasting Drake. “At the end of the day, my job as a comedian is to make people laugh,” Hatcher says. “If you listen to the track, you know it doesn’t come from a mean-spirited place.”

A veteran club comic from south Florida who uses AI to enhance material, Hatcher – AKA Avocado Papi (“I make amazing avocado smoothies,” the 39-year-old coos) – did not have a dog in this historic hip-hop fight. In case you haven’t been paying attention: it started in April with Kendrick’s ambush via a song called Like That from the studio album We Still Don’t Trust You, a Drake hatefest led by Metro Boomin and the rapper Future.

In response, Drake released Push Ups, returning fire on Rick Ross, the Weeknd and other rap Avengers who had taken aim at him, while dismissing Metro out of hand: “ Shut your hoe-ass up and make some drums .” Drake underscored the line, posting a meme of Metro’s head superimposed on to Nick Cannon’s character from the movie Drumline and hiring a marching band to play drums outside of Magic City as Metro was promoting We Still Don’t Trust You at the fabled Atlanta strip club.

As the war of words escalated, Hatcher created short AI films using Midjourney. The idea was to send up the underlying melodrama of what was, essentially, two guys arguing in sonnets – Drake and Kendrick in Dune , or as heads of hostile houses in Game of Thrones . Pullquotes from diss track lyrics and online barbs from the feuding rappers’ camps became fodder for original songs that Hatcher says he wrote himself, using AI tools to produce the actual music and accompanying cover art. “There’s this misconception that AI made all of it,” says Hatcher, recalling the early online discourse around his work. “You have to have the human element. For artists who have been very disciplined in their craft, AI is like a superpower.”

Once Rick Ross accused Drake on Instagram of having undergone plastic surgery – specifically, a Brazilian butt lift – “BBL Drizzy” (Ross’s words) became an internet punchline that Hatcher likewise couldn’t resist engaging. But of the slew of tracks he posted with that title, none hit quite like the Motown version – which Hatcher says he created with the AI music maker Udio. Again: the lyrics were all him. “AI wouldn’t say thicker than a snicker ,” says Hatcher. “I remember heading to Vegas for an AI esports battle. When I got on the plane, before I fell asleep, it was at 30,000 views, which was amazing to me. When I landed, it was at a million something.”

Altogether, Hatcher put out 20 songs during the course of the rap battle. “I was working harder than the rappers!” he jokes. “But there’s no way BBL Drizzy takes off if I had to create it under normal means. It would’ve taken too long. I would’ve missed the moment.”

As of Wednesday, Metro’s original X post touting the BBL Drizzy beat giveaway had more than 23m views – enough to saddle Drake, a social media savant, with his first big internet loss. It also makes you wonder what Hatcher gets for crowd-sourcing all this comedy first. He swears the reward pales in comparison to the result – a bit of good, clean fun to help cleanse the timeline after weeks of enmity. At the very least he can count on more attention for bigger projects, such as the AI sci-fi musical he’s developing with Kevin Hart’s production company.

On Sunday, Hatcher expressed some regret in an X post about having been forgotten as the song’s original creator. In response, Metro did something that had yet to be done in this rap battle: he apologized. “I wasn’t aware king,” he wrote, “but thank you for your contribution to history. Y’all show this man some love.”

“Historically, we’ve seen these rap battles take a turn,” says Hatcher, the rap war’s clearest winner in the end. “If you listen to the original track, it doesn’t come from a mean-spirited place. It’s just meant to add levity to both sides. I have so many Drake fans messaging me like, ‘I’m still riding with Drake, but this song is hilarious.’ I’m pretty sure Drake heard it, and he probably laughed about it, too.”

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