Yann Goulet

Yann Goulet (or Yann Renard-Goulet; 20 August 1914 – 22 August 1999) was a Breton sculptor, Breton nationalist and alleged war-time collaborationist with Nazi Germany who headed the Breton Bagadou Stourm militia. He later took Irish citizenship and became a professor of sculpture at the Royal Hibernian Academy.

Early career Yann Renard-Goulet was born in Saint-Nazaire on 20 August 1914. His father, Gustave Goulet, was a hotelier and chef. Before World War II, he was a member of the Breton National Party, and a former member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). 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. His works in France include bas-reliefs shown at the Exposition International de Paris (1938), and the monument to the youth of the French empire in Lille (1939). He was part of the Breton artistic movement Seiz Breur. The painter Camille Souter took up sculpture in 1950 under his guidance.

He acquired Irish citizenship in 1952 and became an art professor,

In 1981, he travelled to Belfast to take a death mask of hunger-striker, Bobby Sands, but the local Belfast IRA leadership refused the plan.

In 1969, he became secretary general and chair of the Comité National de la Bretagne Libre and published the communiques of the FLB. His friends called him "tonton Yann", but sceptics referred to him as "Général micro". Goulet often claimed "[there was a] national revolution that we missed in 1940" (révolution nationale qu'on a manquée en 1940).

Death Goulet died in Bray, County Wicklow, on 22 August 1999, two days after his 85th birthday. A former president of the RHA commented after his death that he " never pretended to be a genius but I'd give him the highest accolade I could give anyone: he was competent. That's a rare quality".