A question for the history buffs

[sousaphone68]

St James's Brass & Reed Band from Mount Brown in Dublin are celebrating 275 years of music making this year.
This set me to wondering if the band is as I have heard from my fellow members one of the oldest private bands in Ireland or the UK.(or maybe Europe)
By private I mean non state sponsored or military in origin.
Can anybody confirm the claim or does anybody belong to an older band?