Last Saturday during the show we received many texts and emails asking us to explain the differences between civil partnership and marriage.

Dr Fergus Ryan, Lecturer in Family Law at NUI Maynooth, spoke to Dil on this week's Global Village about some of the differences between the two.

"The introduction of civil partnership was really very significant for same-sex couples it has to be said," Dr Ryan said. "You have to bear in mind before the 2010 Civil Partnership Act same-sex couples had next to no protection in law," he said.

"The 169 differences... [from] the Marriage Equality Report in 2011, many of those no longer exist, but there are still some differences between civil partnership and marriage - and some of them are quite significant," he stated.

"I think the critical difference is the lack of constitutional protection - that no matter how many rights you have in legislation, the Constitution doesn't recognise civil partnership in the way that it recognises marriage," Dr Ryan explained.

You can listen back to the interview via the podcast below: