From the Irish village of Castlewarren in the 1850s to Lanesboro, Minnesota, The Irish Rebel follows the life of Edward Ruth. A story of survival, love, war, and life fashioned around a historical framework, this fictionalized account portrays the hardships of Ireland and provides a glimpse of the American Civil War through the eyes of an immigrant.

Based on writings from his great-great-grandfather's journey, author Peter L. Crawley has portrayed Ruth's struggle to extricate himself from the bogs of starvation and cultural ambivalence to make a name for himself as a dentist in his new country, while he tries to prove himself worthy for the hand of one Irish maiden. The journey takes him from Ireland during "The Times of Troubles," with England's insensitive colonial policies, to the American Civil War and Morgan's Raiders, led by the infamous John Hunt Morgan.

The Irish Rebel tells the tale of the striking similarity between the American Civil War and England's disgraceful disavowal of Irish Home Rule. This novel provides a vivid account of that historical period as portrayed by one who has Gaelic blood in him as well as a sentimental dose of unflappable Irish wit.