'Cut the gad next the throat': that is to say, attend to the most urgent need first. You find a man hanging by a gad (withe), and you cut him down to save him. Cutting the gad next the throat explains itself.
When a work must be done slowly:—'I will do
it by degrees as lawyers go to heaven.' (Moran: Carlow.)
'That's not a good fit,' as the serpent said when he swallowed a buck goat, horns and all.
Time and patience would bring a snail to America.
'The cold stone leaves the water on St. Patrick's Day.' About the 17th March (St. Patrick's Day), the winter's cold is nearly gone, and the weather generally takes a milder turn.
'There are more turners than dishmakers'; meaning, there may be many members of a profession, but only few of them excel in it: usually pointed at some particular professional man, who is considered not clever. It is only the most skilful turners that can make wooden dishes.
A person who talks too much cannot escape saying things now and then that would be better left unsaid:—'The mill that is always going grinds coarse and fine.'
'If you lie down with dogs you will get up with fleas': if you keep company with bad people you will contract their evil habits. (Moran: Carlow.)
If you do a kindness don't mar it by any unpleasant drawback: in other words do a kind act graciously:—'If you give away an old coat don't cut off the buttons.'