One of the most important social rights that has been won in recent years was gay marriage.

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 came into force in early 2014 and since then hundreds of people and their partners have taken advantage of the legislation.

There is, however, a legitimate question to be asked regarding the value of this right in a society where it means so much less than it did 50 years ago. Marriage and even religion in general holds little value for a younger generation that is increasingly secular.

That is why today’s decision from the Supreme Court represents such a landmark and may come to be regarded as the first nail in the coffin for marriage.

In Northern Ireland if your husband/wife or civil partner had died and you had dependent children you were able to claim a benefit called widowed parent’s allowance. The problem at the heart of this judicial review was that although Siobhan McLaughlin had been with her partner for 23 years and the pair had four children together, they had never been married and so when her partner died McLaughlin was not eligible for the allowance.

The argument presented to the court was that this was discriminatory under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and today the Supreme Court agreed by a majority of 4-1. Being married might be a special status but so is being unmarried and where a benefit is based on whether or not you have children that status should not matter.

As society changes so does the law and it is increasingly becoming the case that having a piece of paper that recognises your relationship doesn’t actually matter all that much.