What's The 'Dublin to New York City Portal'? The Portal Project And Its Memes Explained

A futuristic portal has been installed in Dublin and New York, allowing citizens on both sides of the Atlantic to communicate in real-time.

Less than a week after its launch in May 2024, the portal sculptures art installation project connecting the two cities has already caused chaos on both sides of the world, as messages mentioning the September 11th terrorist attack and other lewd content were displayed on the portal.

Here's everything you need to know about the interactive sculpture and part webcam that is going viral on Twitter (X) and TikTok.

What Is The Portal Project?

The portal is a public art project by Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys that connects 3,000 miles between New York and Dublin. On July 2023, the Wonder World YouTube channel posted a video about the portals, offering a glimpse of how they're made and describing how they work, essentially describing them as large screens attached to cameras that are purposely placed in locations with heavy foot traffic to encourage interactions (shown below).

The video claims each portal weighs about 11 tons and that the circular shape was inspired by science fiction stories as a recognizable "portal shape."

Where Are the NYC-Dublin Portals Located?

The New York City portal is installed on the Flatiron South Public Plaza at Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street and its Dublin counterpart is at the corner of North Earl Street and O'Connell Street.

What Are People Displaying in Front Of The NYC-Dublin Portals?

The group behind the project wrote on their website that "The Portal's" goal is to act as a "bridge to a united planet," and well, they did reach that, but not in the hopeful and wholesome utopian vision they thought. Shortly after the NYC-Dublin Portals went live, people used their phones to share inappropriate videos and a photo of the Twin Towers in flames on 9/11.

On May 12th, 2024, a video of someone holding up a phone to the Portal reading "RIP Pop Smoke," followed by an image of the September 11th terrorist attack started to spread on social media. That day, the @tissuelaugh TikTok page posted a video showing the moment the images were displayed on the portal.

What Are Some Notable Memes About The Dublin-New York Portal?

The Dublin-New York Portals served as a perfect exploitable meme source for the internet, which was delighted to share numerous photoshopped images of the art installation. For example, on May 8th, X user @AniGamerNX posted a Photoshop of Knuckles standing in the portal and, on the same day, X user @verstroll posted a meme about the portal (shown below, right).

Why Was The Dublin-New York Portal Temporarily Shut Down?

It didn't take a week for the Dublin-New York Portal to be temporarily shut down after inappropriate behavior ensued, according to the Dublin City Council announcement on May 14th. Times reported although those engaged in the inappropriate behavior were few and uncommon, the content about it reached virality online.

For the full history of Dublin to New York City Portal, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.