Michael Sweetman became the director of the Irish Council of the European Movement (ICEM) in 1971. During the campaign to join the then EEC he advocated that the ICEM were the best qualified to refute statements on why Ireland should not join the EEC. He urged the members of the ICEM to continue sending in daily letters to the newspapers on issues in the campaign.
After his untimely death, his pamphlet ‘The Common Name of the Irishman’ was published by his friends at the request of his wife, Barbara. The ‘Common Name of the Irishman’, focused on the possibility of using the EEC model as a solution to the troubles in Northern Ireland.