 In 616 , Æthelfrith was succeeded by Edwin of Northumbria , a Deiran . Edwin banished Æthelfrith 's sons , including both Oswald and Oswiu of Northumbria . Both spent their exile in Dál Riata , a kingdom spanning parts of northeastern Ireland and western Scotland . Oswiu was a child when he came to Dál Riata , and grew up in an Irish milieu . He became a fluent speaker of Old Irish , and may have married a princess of the Uí Néill dynasty , probably Fín the daughter ( or possibly granddaughter ) of Colmán <unk> . Aldfrith was a child of this marriage , but his date of birth is unrecorded . He was probably thus a cousin or nephew of the noted scholar Cenn <unk> mac <unk> , and perhaps a nephew of Bishop Finan of Lindisfarne . Irish law made Fín 's kin , the Cenél nEógain of the northern Uí Néill , responsible for his upbringing . The relationship between Aldfrith 's father and mother was not considered a lawful marriage by Northumbrian churchmen of his day , and he is described as the son of a concubine in early sources . 
