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

History
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 the expertise and labor necessary to build Rapture. McDonagh 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.

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 displayed a more realistic outlook than Ryan when it came to upkeep of the city. He was the first to realize that things were getting out of control with Fontaine's Plasmid business in Rapture, and 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. McDonagh also attempted to lessen the unrest amongst the poor population of the city 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.

After Fontaine was supposedly killed in a shoot out with Ryan's security forces, McDonagh tried to get 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 post 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.

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

Trivia

 * It is possible that Bill is the owner of the Fighting McDonagh's tavern, since it shares his last name and because many of his audio diaries can be found there.


 * Ken Levine, the director of BioShock, stated that he used characters as themes in BioShock, with Bill McDonagh representing Ryan's conscience.


 * According to an article in There's Something in the Sea, Bill McDonagh's disappearance from the surface was noticed by his nephew Flann McDonagh.


 * McDonagh is referenced by name in two diaries in BioShock 2. One apparently names McDonagh as the one who convinced Ryan to have debates with Sofia Lamb, an action that backfired. Another shows that "Big Kate" O'Malley apparently warned McDonagh about the structural weaknesses in Dionysus Park, but was unable to act before it was flooded.