By Kenneth Gachie Published on: May 16, 2024 11:22 (EAT)
A video “portal” connecting New York City with Irish capital Dublin went viral on social media after some onlookers flashed the camera, held inappropriate pictures up to the portal and made other wild gestures, leading the Dublin City Council to institute a temporary shutdown.
But what exactly is the phenomenon? The New York-Dublin portal functions like a continuous live video call between cameras stationed in the two cities and was opened last week, allowing onlookers to watch and interact with passersby from across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Dublin-New York portal is the second of its kind, following a portal that opened in May 2021 connecting Vilnius, Lithuania with Lublin, Poland.
The project was founded by Benediktas Gylys, a Lithuanian investor and artist, who called the portals a “bridge that unifies and an invitation to rise above prejudices and disagreements.”
The Dublin-New York portal opened on May 8, and the connection between the two cities is expected to last until autumn, according to the Dublin City Council.
Everything appeared to go according to plan as people from both cities connected over music, old friendship, shared cultural beliefs, genuine interest in each other's cities and virtual tourism. Things, however, took a quick turn after some individuals from both cities started misbehaving, exporting lewdness and crass behaviour across the pond.
For every wholesome video depicting participants meeting friends or holding friendly signs into the portal, even more depicting bizarre behavior went hugely viral on social media—like some onlookers who appeared to brazenly take drugs in front of the camera.
Multiple instances of people flashing the portal — including one man who was captured on video lowering his pants, and OnlyFans model and social media personality Ava Louise, who lifted her shirt exposing her breasts — went viral on social media.
More mannerless acts, which would then be broadcast on social media, continued to be manifested as both cities continued to interact through the portal.
Following the seemingly uncontrollable behaviour, the portal was temporarily shut down Monday evening, and the Dublin City Council said it would look to make unspecified changes to the portal.
"While we cannot control all of these actions, we are implementing some technical solutions to address this," the council said in a statement.
The council added that most interactions through the portals have been positive, though a “very small minority of people” have engaged in inappropriate behavior that has been “amplified through social media.”
While most of the bad behaviour has been emanating from the New York side, some people on the Irish side have thrown eggs, flashed body parts and displayed images of swastikas and the twin towers burning on 9/11, prompting some New Yorkers to dub it the “portal to hell”.
Not all interactions were full of obscenities and inappropriate behaviour. In a video liked more than 500,000 times on X, onlookers on the Dublin side held a phone up to the camera with the message “RIP POP SMOKE”—a reference to the New York rapper who was shot and killed in 2020—and seconds later, another onlooker held up a photo of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
In another wholesome instance, one New York-based woman garnered nearly 1 million views on a TikTok video depicting herself and her Irish friend meeting up through the portal, each holding up heart signs.
Another TikTok user garnered more than 4 million likes on a video in which the New York and Dublin onlookers simply waved at each other.
The portal has also been the subject of memes, with some social media users editing in scenes from shows and films—like The Sopranos or The Simpsons—into the center of the portal.
Other social media users have imagined where else portals should be stationed, with one suggesting portals connecting Toronto and Compton—the hometowns of rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar, who have been embroiled in a highly-publicized rap beef this month.
While city dwellers wait patiently for the portal to be reopened, many have cautioned people against the inappropriate behavior, saying it could hurt the image of either cities.
"Not even a week in and Dubliners have truly embarrassed us around the world,” Columnist Amy Donohoe lamented in an Irish Independent column. “Anyone who goes and stands in front of the portal is representing our little country, but if we’re showing off a drunken culture and being offensive, it could potentially affect tourism in Ireland in the long run."
