Hands up who saw it coming?
Alright, you can all lower your arms now.
Honestly, if you ever thought that the Dublin Portal - the amazing advance in technology that broadcasts a live 24-hour feed from Dublin, and delivers a live feed from New York back to us - was going to be a life-affirming, wholesome affair in the Irish capital across the summer months, well, I have a bridge to sell you.
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I was in the city centre earlier this week, just days after the Portal had been unveiled. As a caveat, I must admit to feeling a degree of scepticism about the whole thing when I first heard about it. Yet walking down O'Connell Street, I felt myself pulled towards the junction with North Earl Street - where even in the lashing rain, a small crowd had formed, gawking at the thing. A group of teenage boys in school uniforms jostled each other, jokingly making heart symbols with their hands. On the other side, a gaggle of New Yorkers in much drier weather stood gawking back at us, a bicycle courier responding with a thumbs-up. Suddenly, I got it: mere minutes ago, I was side-stepping 'phone zombies’ who were too busy checking TikTok to look where they were going. Here, on the other hand, was an incredible piece of technology that connected two cities, over 3000 miles apart, in real-time. Okay, some people were filming on their phones too, but still - it seemed profound, in a way.
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Of course, it was only a day or two later when reports of what Dublin City Council deemed ‘inappropriate behaviour’ from bystanders emerged, and the international news headlines and ‘This is why we can’t have nice things’ social media memes began. While New Yorkers were bringing cardboard cut-outs of Hozier to their side, Dubliners were showing them pictures of the Twin Towers aflame. Bad taste by any stretch of the imagination. However, it must be said that bums were bared on both sides, and a woman was seen flashing her breasts in New York in a reported bid to gain clout as an OnlyFans influencer. If there was a naughty step available, both sides would be on it.
Drunken behaviour, bare arses, even mocking 9/11.
— RTÉ Radio 1 (@RTERadio1) May 13, 2024
It's only been a few days since a live portal between Dublin and NYC was unveiled and it’s already become a hotbed for antisocial behaviour.
The @nypost claims the installation is "already bringing out the worst in people" pic.twitter.com/LATJUc5xAn
But really, what did they expect? Placing a livestream in two cities notorious for being somewhat rowdy and occasionally unruly, it wasn’t going to be folks waving placidly at each other 24 hours a day. This is a social, not a cultural experiment - and if you’ve looked at Twitter/X in recent months, you’ll find sights a lot more shocking than a few bare behinds. The calls to move it to the southside of the city are ridiculous, too: why shouldn’t northsiders have something nice for a change?
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As things stand at the time of writing, the Portal has been taken offline while its developers figure out how to solve this so-called problem. Whether it lives to broadcast another day remains to be seen, but now some cheeky wag has laid flowers at its metallic base and affixed a sign saying ‘RIP The Portal, 8 - 14th May 2024’ to its screen. It sums up our Irish humour to a tee: we may be a bit bold sometimes, but at least we know how to laugh at ourselves.
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