One surprising difference between civil partnership and marriage (in Scotland): adultery is not a ground for dissolution of a civil partnership.

I have seen the standard legal text on dissolution of civil partnerships in Scotland. I can read some legalese, but not that. You would need to be an experienced lawyer to make any sense of it.

In some ways civil partnership is an institution closer to what a Catholic traditionalist would want than modern marriage is. Perhaps the old-guard of the Church in Ireland might consider going for it and leaving marriage for the gays.