Sláinte to the singles!
A virtual portal connecting New York City and Dublin opened earlier this week has turned into a hotspot for strangers looking to make connections across the thousands of miles.
Streaming live throughout the summer at the busy junction of 5th Avenue, Broadway and 23rd Street in Manhattan, the scheduled cultural programming appears to have been preempted by a whole lot of flirting.
“My immediate thought was that this would be the perfect love story,” Ali Weber-Heavey, 25, told The Post on Friday.
She thought she would quickly pass by to check out the new portal on her way home from work, but found herself compelled to stick around — and size up the horde of Dublinites peering back at her.
“It really stopped me in my tracks. And, it was honestly a feeling I’ve never felt before,” she said.
Weber-Heavey went viral when she posted a TikTok showing herself standing in the Flatiron District crowd, plus a group of young Irishmen in the portal, with an audio clip saying, “You look lonely… I can fix that.”
The Brooklynite hastened to add that she already has a boyfriend — but she couldn’t help but think about the portal’s potential for the perfect meet-cute.
She’s not the only one.
Singletons looking for fresh dating inspo have been observed crowding around the 24/7 virtual livestream — essentially an ongoing video call — to spot cuties, throw up heart hands, hold up signs with their social media handles and even exchange numbers.
One hopeful Dublinite was seen sporting a a handmade sign with a personal message: “Send Nudes.”
But others are entertaining more serious inquiries.
Michael Nagle
“Girlhood is finding a boyfriend through the portal in NYC,” @sjones112 posted on TikTok. “It’s a joke until it’s not.”
The portals are located on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, a bustling city center corridor north of the River Liffey, and the public plaza adjacent to NYC’s Flatiron Building.
Other portals have been installed in Poland and Lithuania, according to the portal website, possibly leading to more international love matches.
The system was installed to honor Dublin being named the European City of Smart Tourism for 2024 — but may soon transform it into a European City of Sexy Tourism.
“We are overwhelmed by the reactions, which are vastly positive. We are not trying to suggest any particular way in how people should interact with the Portals or with each other,” the organizers told Euronews Travel.
“Instead, Portals are an invitation to meet fellow human beings and for people to draw their own interpretations and feelings. In this sense, we are also just observers of this event, and it’s great to see the amount of creative energy that people have and how powerful human connection can be.”
Stephen Yang
However, some people’s “creative energy” has already been disconnected.
A “drunk” woman in her 40s was arrested in Dublin Wednesday night after being seen “grinding up” against the installation. She was escorted away by two national police officers, according to LimerickLive.
