Inventor of New York-Dublin portal defends creation, laments that debauchery ‘reflects state of humanity’
The man behind of the infamous NYC-Dublin portal defended his creation on Monday, saying it’s a “reflection of the current state of humanity” — from the joys of seeing loved ones across the world to lewd gadflies willing to flash their unmentionables at strangers.
“It shows that we humans are doing very human things. It also reflects our current state of humanity,” Benediktas Gylys told The Post during a visit to the Flatiron location Monday.
“We see a lot of light, a lot of laughs, a lot of smiles, love, marriage, proposals. But we also see some attention seeking. Trying to gain followers, gain clicks, gain narratives — some darkness.”
“This is the dance of lightness and darkness,” Gylys said.
Gylys stopped by the portal — a large screen livestreaming video between Manhattan and O’Connell Street in the Irish capital — after it was switched back on Sunday.
It had to be shut down less than a week after it opened following bad behavior from both sides of the pond.
While many people visited the portal to dance or politely wave, others used it as an opportunity for some vulgarity — including an OnlyFans model from New Jersey flashing her breasts from the NYC side, and Irish ne’er-do-wells who held up swastikas and pictures of the Twin Towers collapsing on 9/11.
After days off the grid, the portal sports new measures to try to keep people’s behavior in check, including limited hours, full-time security, fencing to keep people at a distance, and a black-out feature which blurs the feed if anybody gets too close to the camera.
Those measures seem to be working out for now, but New Yorkers are already looking for ways to work their way around them.
Leonard Welsh, a 21-year-old college student, stopped by the portal Monday and held his laptop aloft with photos of the British Union Jack flag and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, hoping to provoke ire on the Irish side.
“A [plainclothes] cop ran up on me and stopped me,” Welsh said. “I just like messing with the Irish since I have Scottish blood.”
But not once during that interaction did the security guard on duty take any action, said Welsh, who added that he’d managed to get close to the camera earlier in the day without the feed blurring out.
He vowed to return later for more mischief.
Visiting New Yorkers were not surprised at all that bad behavior had brought down the portal.
“Unfortunately that’s the sad part about living in New York,” said 48-year-old, Jabari D. “You get something and then two weeks later it’s taken down.”
“That’s just New York. It only takes one person to mess it up.”
