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The NYC-Dublin portal is back online — with some new restrictions
By
Ryan Kailath
Published May 21, 2024
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Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
By
Ryan Kailath
Published May 21, 2024
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There's no Irish goodbye for the portal.
After shuttering twice due to some “inappropriate behaviour” on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the viral art installation “Portal,” which provides a real-time video link between Manhattan and Dublin, Ireland, is back online.
Sarah Strasser, a New Yorker who works near the portal’s location on 23rd Street near Madison Square Park, had passed by last week when the installation was shut down. On Tuesday morning, she was seeing it online for the first time.
“I think it’s really cool, we should have them all over the world,” she said.
After viral hijinks — including partial nudity in New York, a woman being led away by police in Dublin and offensive content being held up close to the portal’s camera — the installation briefly shut down twice last week while its creators and local hosts figured out what to do.
“Portal,” which provides a real-time video link between Manhattan and Dublin, Ireland, is back online with some modifications.
In the meantime, all the attention brought the installation a new audience.
Lucy Kirogoi and Dimitri Van Camp, a couple visiting from Belgium, said they only learned of the portal after it went viral.
“We wouldn’t have known about it otherwise,” Kirogoi said. “It’s cool, but I wish this was here during COVID. It would have been nicer.”
The portal reopened on Sunday morning and will operate with new hours. Although it was originally conceived as a 24/7 livestream, it will now be turned on from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, according to a joint statement from the Dublin City Council, Flatiron NoMad Business Improvement District and Portals.org, the maker of the structure.
As originally planned, the portal will operate through at least the start of fall, a spokesperson for the Flatiron NoMad BID said. Any further date is still to be determined.
Beyond avoiding the late-night hours that might have encouraged some uninhibited behavior, the host groups have implemented a technological solution. If people touch the portal or hold up something close enough to block out the screen, the livestream will blur on both sides until the obstacle is removed.
Irish-American New Yorker Kara Donnelly didn’t have high hopes for the updated portal’s chances of avoiding bad behavior. “Knowing New Yorkers, this thing’s probably not going to remain open,” Donnelly said. “I’d like to visit the Dublin one if it’s still up by the time I make my way there next.”
Kayne Hendrickson, who was visiting from London, echoed the sentiment. “It just takes a couple of people to have a few drinks and they’ll try it again,” Hendrickson said. “It’ll be quiet for a little while, but then …”
The installation was conceived by Lithuanian artist and investor Benediktas Gylys. The first and only other installation of its kind, launched in 2021, connects Vilnius, Lithuania, to Lublin, Poland. The portal drew tens of thousands of visitors in less than a week, according to the organizers' statement.
New Yorker Kevin McKenna stood watching the portal while a group of young men, perhaps a tour group or bachelor party, lined up on the Dublin side in matching “Team Ginger” shirts. Double-decker buses streamed down O’Connell Street in Central Dublin, beside a statue of James Joyce.
“This is interesting, given the history of Irish coming to America,” McKenna said. “Now here they are standing in the middle of Dublin, coming to America and greeting us.”
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Ryan Kailath
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