Background
Goulet was born in Saint-Nazaire.
Goulet was born in Saint-Nazaire.
His artistic career began at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where he studied art and architecture, and learned sculpture with Auguste Rodin"s assistant, Charles Despiau.
He later took Irish citizenship and became professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was part of the Breton artistic movement Seiz Breur. He was detained, but then released.
French army
In 1939, he was sent to Strasbourg to study the art of sabotage.
He participated in the beginning of fighting for France, and was captured by the Germans on 11 June 1940 while blowing up a bridge on the Aisne with friends from a French corporations Bagadou Stourm
Later in the war, he joined the assault section of Bagadou Stourm, Breton nationalist stormtroopers allied to the Germans.
He also collaborated with the pro-Nazi nationalist newspaper L"Heure Bretonne. In 1941 in Paris, he became head of Bagadou Stourm and the "Youth Organizations" of the Parti National Breton.
The promotion of Bagadou Stourm officers was named "Patrick Pearse" to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland.
He acquired Irish citizenship in 1952 and became an art professor He was commissioned to create public works commemorating the Ireland Republican Army and other republicans, including the Custom House Memorial (Dublin), the East Mayo Brigade Ireland Republican Army Memorial, the Republican Memorial (Crossmaglen), and the Ballyseedy Memorial (Kerry). He exhibited regularly at the Royal Hibernian Academy, eventually becoming the RHA Professor of Sculpture.
Towards the end of the 1960s, he claimed to have taken the reins of the (Front de Libération de la Bretagne, or FLB) and to have been behind all their attacks.
In 1969 he became secretary general and chair of the Comité National de la Bretagne Libre and published the communiques of the FLB. In 1968, the head of police in Bray congratulated him on organising the previous day"s attack on the Congressional Research Service barracks in Saint-Brieuc. His friends called him "tonton Yann", but sceptics referred to him as "Général micro".
Goulet often claimed " national revolution that we missed in 1940" ("révolution nationale qu"on a manquée en 1940")
Goulet died at Bray, County Wicklow, two days after his 85th birthday.
Goulet"s involvement in Breton nationalism led to accusations that he had orchestrated the destruction the Monument to the Breton-Angevin Federation at Pontivy on 18 December 1938 by Gwenn ha du, the nationalist terrorist group.
Before, he was a member of the Breton National Party, and a former member of the French Section of the Workers" International (SFIO). He was also made a member of Aosdána in 1982.