Two new cities have been added to the Portal on North Earl Street, connecting Dublin and New York City. The Portal will now additionally link Dublin to Vilnius in Lithuania and Lublin in Poland, rotating every 180 seconds. The addition comes after the Portal’s initial construction and opening in May of 2024.
James Geoghegan, Lord Mayor of Dublin, stated that the Portal “has attracted over 340,000 visitors since its launch in May and has brought a new lease of life to North Earl Street”. Although the attraction was initially open 24 hours, seven days a week, the Portal implemented new operating hours after a brief closure to prevent inappropriate behaviour. Reports included a woman escorted away by Gardaí after grinding against the structure and multiple instances of patrons displaying images of terrorist attacks on cell phones.
Due to the incidents, the organisers of the Portal have “implemented a “proximity-based solution” with technology that blurs the livestream for both sides of the portal should an individual “step on the Portal and obstruct the camera.”
Deputy Mayor of the City of Lublin for Culture, Sport and Participation, Beata Stepaniuk-Kuśmierzak expressed her excitement for the Portal to open “unlimited opportunities for communication and collaboration on an international scale.”
Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation of Lithuania also shared that the idea had originated in Lithuania and that she hoped for residents of each city to “discover how similar we all are through the use of portals, which connect us to a shared network that brings people from different places and cultures closer together.”
It has also been announced that there will be more Portal locations added throughout the rest of the year.
