Here’s the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bRHcKKwpeo

The movie, Ryan’s Daughter, with Sarah Miles as Rosy, the main character, has a scene where the town’s people think that she betrayed them and they also know of her illicit affair with the commander of the hated English occupying Ireland. They rush as a mob to Rosy’s house and drag her out to be punished by shearing her hair. But things get out of hand and they end up stripping all her clothes off before shearing her hair. This was a time, Edwardian England, when simply an exposed woman’s ankle was scandalous so stripping a woman completely naked in public would have been extremely humiliating for a woman and a very intensely, sexually prurient experience for a mob of small town people to watch her clothes come off until she was completely naked especially the young boys.

Many of the townspeople consisted of boys, girls, women and many men who might never have seen a naked woman and may experience an illicit sexual thrill at the forced stripping of a female. Of course the movie doesn’t really show the entire stripping but enough to show that she was stripped completely naked by the mob. It’s actually quite lascivious as shown because they toss about her clothes, her boots, stockings and bloomers including her corset so it’s obvious that she’s completely naked before they finally shear off her hair.

The story below describes the stripping scene that the movie didn’t show but as it might have happened this way if the event had been true.

The entire town of Kirrary in County Kerry, Ireland showed up as a mob seeking justice from Rosy Ryan whom they believed had betrayed their cause for independence from England. Kirrary was a small town in Ireland in 1918 with just about 300 people and they all knew and gossiped about each other. All the women were either married or virgins in the close catholic community and sex was not talked about in public discourse, although many of the young men and boys and many of the girls thought of it often and surreptitiously talked about it in adolescent ways.

The town’s older women and many of the jealous younger ones gossiped about Rosy. And Rosy didn’t help matters by taking up with the very good looking Major Doryan in such a scandalous extra marital affair. The young girls and women of the town, like Maureen, envied Rosy. They envied her beauty, her long, lustrous brown hair, and they also envied her love affair with the good looking Major because they lusted after such a sexual experience but their small town inhibitions wouldn’t allow them to admit such sinful lust. Many of the young women and girls often though of what Rosy might be experiencing with the major but kept such prurient thoughts secretly to themselves.

Maureen in particular wanted to see Rosie publicly humiliated and now that the whole town sought to inflict justice upon the hapless Rosie, she would get her way. She thought often of Rosy’s romantic experiences and such thoughts stirred her own sexuality and images. Such thoughts aroused her passions that she found hard to control and mixed with her envy of Rosy made her want to see Rosy humiliated in front of the whole town.

Maureen knew that such a good looking soldier as Major Doryan would never look at her the way he looked at Rosy and she craved to see Rosy publicly embarrassed and shamed in front of everyone because she herself would never have such pleasures as she imagined Rosy enjoyed with the major.

The town mob followed Mr. and Mrs. McCardle and the other self-righteous, sanctimonious old women with Maureen closely following right to the school house cottage where Rosy lived with her husband, Shaughnessy, a shy and quiet man. The mob seethed with prurient lust to see what would happen to the hapless girl, how she would react when her punishment was inflicted and what might happen to her in the public shaming planned by the McCardles.

Many of the young men, boys and women, including the lecherous older men, knew that the public shaming of Rosy could get out of hand in very embarrassing ways for the pretty woman and they anticipated a very humiliating spectacle for the girl. Many among the mob were hoping to see some of her clothes torn or removed and such thoughts fueled their lustful glee and anticipation to see if that might happen.

The young men, just boys really, and the girls laughed in leering ways knowing the McCardles planned to shear off Rosy’s beautiful, lustrous brown hair as punishment for her betrayal but also because they knew of her fornications with the Major. Many expected that Rosy may resist and then ... well ... then they’d have to force her. They wanted to see what might happen. They knew they would see something maybe even something they weren’t supposed to see and it drove the mob’s lust, everyone wanted to gawk and look at Rosy when the moment came and see what would happen to her and how she would be publicly shamed and embarrassed.