Bill McDonagh

"Ryan nationalized Fontaine Futuristics - he owns it now, lock, stock and barrel. For the good of the city, he says. He'll break it up in due time, he says. I've resigned from the council and lodged me letter of protest, but that's just pissing in the wind. It'll be war, I say... unless somebody stops Ryan and right fast."

- Bill McDonagh

Bill McDonagh speaks with a Cockney accent and served as the general contractor in Rapture under Andrew Ryan. A well-meaning man who believed in the promise of Rapture, he provided much of the expertise and labor necessary to build the city.

Life on the Surface
McDonagh grew up on Cheapside street in London, and worked his way through the East London School of Engineering and Mechanical Vocation, before moving to America, believing it to be the place where a man can rise to the top. There he started working for Bud Chinowski as a plumbing contractor, hoping to one day be able to found his own plumbing company.

He first met Ryan while he was repairing the fixtures in the bathrooms of Ryan's New York suite. Ryan asked why McDonagh was using brass fixtures instead of the tin ones that were arranged with the contractor, and McDonagh replied that he would pick up the cost of the fixtures, as a point of personal pride being that none of his work had ever leaked. Impressed, Ryan made him general contractor. When McDonagh moved to Rapture his disappearance was noted by his nephew Flann McDonagh.

Life in Rapture
McDonagh was one of Rapture's City Council members, possibly because of his close friendship with Ryan or because of his great influence in building and maintaining the city. McDonagh was often called on for maintenance in various parts of the city, including problems with the pipes in the Medical Pavilion and Dionysus Park.

McDonagh displayed a more realistic outlook than Ryan when it came to upkeep of the city. He attempted to lessen the unrest amongst the poor population by getting Ryan to agree to a series of debates with Sofia Lamb. Unfortunately, this did not have the intended effect and only made Ryan's political situation worse. McDonagh was also the first to realize that things were getting out of control with Fontaine's Plasmid business and Fontaine's Home for the Poor. He tried to tell Ryan that real grievances did exist among Fontaine's followers, due in strong part to the excesses and philosophy of Ryan himself.

After Fontaine was supposedly killed in a shootout with Ryan's security forces, McDonagh urged Ryan to prevent any further unrest by dealing with the matter equitably. However, Ryan ignored his advice, nationalizing Fontaine Futuristics and contradicting all of his philosophies against "Big Government" in the process. This upset McDonagh so much that he resigned his position on the city council in protest.

As the situation in Rapture worsened, McDonagh realized that the Civil War would not end until Ryan was dead. In order to save his beloved city he decided to kill Ryan. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful. Bill McDonagh was killed and his body was impaled on a pillar outside of Andrew Ryan's office in Rapture Central Control after he turned on Ryan in an attempt to prevent the chaos from growing worse.

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 1
A photo of Bill McDonagh is briefly seen in the Need to Know Theater : Taking the Taint out of Fontaine.

Audio Diaries

 * Medical Pavilion
 * Freezing Pipes
 * Neptune's Bounty
 * Eden Leaking
 * Arresting Fontaine
 * Meeting Ryan
 * Rapture Changing
 * Arcadia
 * Seeing Ghosts
 * Fort Frolic
 * Fontaine's Army
 * Guns Blazing
 * Hephaestus
 * Ryan Takes F Futuristics
 * Stopping Ryan
 * Fontaine's Legacy
 * Genetic Arms Race

Behind the Scenes

 * Bill is the owner of the Fighting McDonagh's tavern, as has been confirmed in the novel BioShock: Rapture. It is stated that he named it after his father, who had been a boxer in his youth.


 * Ken Levine, the director of BioShock, stated Bill McDonagh in a way represented Ryan's conscience in BioShock.