Not even a week after opening, the Dublin-New York portal has temporarily closed thanks to some unsavoury behaviour.
The portal was conceived by Lithuanian artist and entrepreneur Benediktas Gylys with the goal of bringing people across the world together. Gylys launched the first portal between the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius and the Polish city of Lublin.
The portal between Dublin and New York opened last Wednesday, 8 May, connecting the Irish capital to the Big Apple.
It didn’t last long, however. Just yesterday (13 May), Dublin City Council temporarily suspended the portal’s stream thanks to a litany of inappropriate behaviours. We look at five of these repulsive acts that led to the closure of the Dublin-New York portal.
5. Woman grinding on the portal – not its intended use…
Just hours after the Dublin-New York portal went live, footage appeared on social media of gardaí escorting an allegedly drunk woman in her 40s away from the portal after she appeared to grind against the screen.
Liza Linnane (@liza_linnane2 on Instagram) filmed the video and claimed, “Basically she was there for about 20 mins very drunk and was slapping and grinding against the portal before guards stepped in. She wasn’t arrested, just taken away from it”.
4. Man mooning the portal – a full moon in Dublin
Meanwhile, a video shared to TikTok by @seanwiidsabulu shows a man in hi-vis work gear waving a huge greeting from evening-time Dublin to daytime New York.
Unsuspecting New Yorkers then got more than they bargained for, as the man turned his back to the portal, bent over, and bared his big Irish arse.
3. Man taking drugs – party portal
Yet another video surfaced on 10 May that seems to show a man taking drugs in front of the portal. The video, posted to Twitter by user @MacConRaoi7, shows a huge crowd of revellers at night, presumably after the city’s pubs and clubs had let out.
One man in the crowd appears to twice snort some white powder off a key before staring intently through the portal and onlookers in New York.
2. People brandishing swastikas – one of the more alarming acts that closed the Dublin-New York portal
Reports emerged, including this from The Guardian, of images of swastikas being brandished repeatedly from a mobile phone.
This hate symbol is, of course, synonymous with Hitler and the Nazi party in 1930s and 40s Germany, and is possibly a worrying sign of the rise of the far right in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland.
1. Photos of 9/11 – a truly callous act
One of the most repulsive acts that got the Dublin-New York portal closed was undoubtedly the displaying of images of one of the planes approaching the World Trade Centre during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The attack, which targeted New York’s World Trade Centre along with the Pentagon and the White House, claimed the lives of 2,977 people.
