I Visited The New York City Portal To Dublin After It Reopened With Proximity-Based Precautions, And Here's Everything You Need To Know
I just visited the New York City portal to Dublin which is a new visual art installation that's in the Flatiron District through the fall of 2024. It's a giant, livestreamed, no-audio video that links NYC to Dublin, Ireland.
It was unveiled on May 8 and pretty soon started going viral on Twitter and TikTok, for both good and bad reasons.
There was a lot of footage showing people at the portal connecting with friends or relatives on the other side of it. And tons of others were seen having friendly interactions with complete strangers through the portal.
But as a surprise to absolutely no one, a handful of people did inappropriate things on the livestream. Within a few hours of the installation being put up, a drunk woman in Dublin was arrested for "grinding" her backside against the screen.
In the days that followed, there were several more instances of people on both sides exhibiting unseemly behavior on the livestream. Multiple videos on TikTok and Twitter have gone viral showing people exposing themselves or holding up offensive images in front of the portal, including a photo of United Airlines Flight 175 heading toward the Twin Towers on 9/11.
By May 14, less than a week after it debuted, the portal was temporarily shut down due to "inappropriate behavior." The portal was back up and running by May 19 with several changes in place. Most notably, the livestream was originally on 24/7, but since its reopening, it's now on from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In a statement, the Dublin City Council said, "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."
When I arrived at the portal myself, I saw that there’s now also fencing and placing decals in front of it to prevent people from getting too close. Also, stepping onto the obstruction will now blur the images on both sides of the portal.
The NYC side of the portal is located on the Manhattan junction of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street. I went on Wednesday around 2:30 p.m., and it wasn't nearly as crowded as I expected it to be.
A guide gave directions on one side of the fence, and a security person was posted on each side as well.
The guide explained that there were markers on the ground we had to stand between to be in the frame of the portal's camera.
There was a blue marker on each side and a pink one front and center.
One thing that surprised me when I got there was the image quality. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as sharp as I assumed it'd be, and people's movements were lagging onscreen. It was like FaceTiming someone who had a weak internet connection.
In front of the portal's fencing, there was a bucket of little greeting signs that said things like "Top of the morning" and "We Love Dublin" on them, which people took turns holding up to the Dubliners.
People on both sides mostly waved and took photos and videos. Several of the people waving were talking on the phone in front of the portal, presumably speaking to someone on the other side of it.
At some point, a couple of people on the NYC side brought and waved the Ireland flag and the Dublin GAA Football Soccer Club flag.
On the Dublin side, a couple people stepped up to the front and began to seemingly play rock, paper, scissors with someone on the NYC side.
And of course, some people were still trying to get away with being provocative on the livestream. Specifically, while I was there, a couple of guys on the Dublin side flexed their arms in front of the portal, stuck up their middle fingers, lifted their shirts to flash their bellies, and eventually took them off and spun them in the air.
But with an installation like this, even with its new precautions, stuff like this is still bound to happen (and it's occasionally amusing).
So if you find yourself in NYC or Dublin, check out the portal for a bit! You may make some new friends or have a good laugh!
