Student movements have played an important role in the liberalising of social policy across the world. The objective of this thesis is to provide an analysis of the Irish student movement through the lens of existing international research and to examine the role that the student movement played in the liberalisation of social policy in three major areas in the latter half of twentieth-century Ireland: the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the availability of contraceptives, and access to information on reproductive health and abortion services abroad. This research utilises movement records, archive material, interviews, and digital newspaper archives to map and analyse the activities of student leaders and activists in these campaigns. It examines the role of students in the public sphere and the movement’s influence on public discourse on these contentious and emotive issues. The research shows that students played a profoundly important role in opening up debate on sexuality and reproductive rights. It provides strong evidence that the student movement (Union of Students of Ireland) were among the first to place the decriminalisation of homosexuality on the media agenda and engage young people in debate around sexuality and identity. The student movement was also a strong advocate for sexual health education within the gay community and was both an agitator and advocate on these issues. This research also argues that students played a pivotal role in forcing the contraceptive debate beyond the confines of the private home by making contraceptives openly available and demanding sex education in schools and colleges. The research further contends that the role the student movement played, as ally and partner to numerous civil society groups on the issue of family planning, was an important one and did much to advance the liberalisation agenda. In the area of bodily autonomy and the right to information on abortion services, this research presents compelling evidence that the student movement led the way in the provision of services, as agitators for reform, and was a compelling advocate for the rights of women to control their own bodies. The work concludes with an analysis of the case studies through the lens of the literature review and argues that the Irish student movement is an example of a fifth type of student movement, a pragmatic movement, presenting characteristics of both a reform and identity radicalism movement due to its structures, history, and the unique cultural and political sphere in which it found itself. The role of the Irish student movement has been a positive one in the three social policy areas identified above and it has been an injustice to the movement that it has remained untold for so long.