Brian O'Higgins was born in 1882, the youngest of fourteen children of small farmers in Kilskyre, County Meath. His great grandfather, Seán Ó Huiginn, was a poor scholar from County Tyrone who was travelling to Munster before he encountered a group of men who were rushing to Tara to fight in the Rising of 1798. He promptly decided partake in the rebellion and fought in the Battle of Tara Hill, where he was wounded and carried away to the small glen of Kilskyre to recuperate, but in Kilskyre he married and remained for the rest of his life. His father and uncles were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and took part in the abortive Fenian Rising, and later were supporters of Charles Stewart Parnell.