An IRA sniper who killed the last British soldier in the Troubles has been found dead in a house in the Irish Republic, the Garda Síochána has announced.

Bernard McGinn is believed to have died from natural causes after being discovered at the property in Monaghan town on Saturday.

The 56-year-old was convicted of shooting dead Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick on 12 February 1997.

Restorick was the last member of the British army to die at the IRA's hands before the signing of the Good Friday agreement a year later.

McGinn was captured by an SAS unit which raided a farmhouse in South Armagh three months after the Restorick murder. He was arrested along with a number of other key members of the Provisonal IRA's South Armagh brigade during the security operation.

After his arrest McGinn confessed to his role in the IRA's bombing campaign in England during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also handed over the names of other IRA members during interrogations with the police.

McGinn admitted to police that he made explosives north and south of the border on an almost daily basis, "like a day's work". His information on other PIRA operatives provided vital intelligence for the security forces and caused anger among his former comrades.

He was sentenced to a total of 490 years in 1999 for 34 separate offences, including the murder of three British soldiers, his involvement in the 1992 bombing of the Baltic Exchange and the 1996 South Quay bombing, and the bombing of Hammersmith bridge later the same year.

However, he was released in 2000 under the Good Friday agreement after the IRA and loyalist paramilitary prisoners were granted a de facto amnesty for all crimes relating to the Troubles before Easter 1998.

He joined the Provisional IRA at the age of 15. His father was a former Sinn Féin councillor and he was the brother-in-law of Sinn Féin politician Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.