It has barely been a week since it opened but already the portal connecting the people of Dublin to New York via livestream has already had to be shut down. The Portal is on North Earl Street in Dublin facing O'Connell Street while the New York Portal is on Flatiron South Public Plaza at Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street.
It opened last week and became the third and fourth portals of its kind to open after the two previous ones in Vilnius, Lithuania and Lublin, Poland. The project is a creation from the mind of artist Benediktas Gylys.
While there has been some very wholesome moments and some friendly scenes of people from both sides of the Atlantic waving at each other and having dance-offs, there has also been a lot anti-social behaviour and even arrests.
People from both side have been mooning the camera, showing pornography and even images from the scenes of 9/11 to the camera. This trolling obviously wasn't the intended use of the portal but it's hard to see how you would prevent it happening.
they opened a portal between dublin and new york and I just know it will be shut down before its one month anniversary lol pic.twitter.com/4MsGV7mSr8
— em (@shinywiglett) May 9, 2024
Somebody’s already been taken away by the Garda in front of the portal between Dublin and New York lmao.pic.twitter.com/6hr4RXq9eo
— Digital Advice (@DigAdvice) May 12, 2024
The New York Post have come out and said the Portal "is bringing out the worst in people" and they didn't have kind words about the Dublin locals who are flocking to the Portal.
But that earnest utopian vision proved no match for the pub-lined Dublin thoroughfare, whose Guinness-glugging patrons were quickly drawn to the futuristic-looking exhibit like moths to a flame in videos circulating online.
The newspaper then spoke to people about certain incidents that took place on the Dublin side of the Portal and how they don't represent the Irish as a whole.
One imbecile repeatedly flashed a swastika on his phone, ruining a sweet photo op for Matt Shaver, 30, who was visiting New York from Los Angeles and came to the portal to see his sister, who lives in Dublin.
“That sucked. Especially since that was right when my sister came on screen and I was trying to get a picture of her,” Shaver grumbled to The Post on Sunday. “I was like, great, this guy is ruining everybody’s moment right now, that’s terrible.”
Adam Nunan, a cruise ship audio engineer originally from Dublin and in New York while the ship is docked here, said, “That doesn’t represent Ireland very well when you do that. That was everyone’s thoughts back home, there was a lot of people who didn’t want the portal to be built for that reason, that Americans might look at Irish people in the portal doing weird stuff,” he said. “But in these types of things, there’s always going to be that minority of people who ruin it for everyone, you know?”
The Portal was shut off twice on Monday, just five days after its grand opening. It was first shut off for technical issues before turning back on a few hours later before it was turned off once again as Dublin City Council announced that it will undergo changes to deal with the behaviour around it.
Unfortunately, we have also been witnessing a very small minority of people engaged in inappropriate behaviour, which has been amplified through social media. While we cannot control all of these actions, we are implementing some technical solutions to address this and these will go live in the next 24 hours
We will continue to monitor the situation over the coming days with our partners in New York to ensure the portals continue to deliver a positive experience for both cities and the world.
It's disappointing that the Portal didn't even last a full week before changes had to be made but what's to be expected, hopefully these changes work and we see less vulgar behaviour around it.
READ ALSO: Bruce Springsteen Paid Touching Musical Tribute To Shane MacGowan In Kilkenny
