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"  This Saint Patrick&amp;#039;s Day do a good deed. No, I&amp;#039;m not talking about ridding your neighborhood of snakes like the original Saint did to earn his day. Instead, buy an extra pint of Guinness. In fact, why not start practicing for the emerald day now and buy a six-pack for the evening? Guinness would surely appreciate it. The famed producer of Ireland&amp;#039;s favorite stout has seen an 8.6 percent drop in sales in Ireland and Northern Ireland since July. According to the half year report from Guinness&amp;#039; parent company, Diageo, while over 80 percent of their sales in Ireland are represented by beer, there has been a reduction in consumption and a shift to people drinking at home more, which has resulted in a share loss of Guinness of .2 percentage points. This change has happening for years and is primarily blamed on Ireland&amp;#039;s financial debt, which resulted in a $92.8 billion bailout for the country&amp;#039;s banks in December. That event delivered an extra hit to Guinness. This is not to say that Guinness is in danger of going under. At least not yet. The St. James Gate brewery is still generating over one billion euro in net sales, which makes up over 12 percent of Diageo&amp;#039;s total sales (no word on how that number translates to pots of gold). And CEO Paul Walsh is hopeful that things will improve within the year. More from Delish: Pairing Beer with Food In a National Geographic piece on St. Patrick&amp;#039;s Day facts, the global corporate relations director of Guinness, reported that 13 million pints of Guinness are consumed globally on March 17th. In order to boost those numbers and help out where Ireland is having some troubles, we&amp;#039;ve rounded up some stout-based recipes for this Patty&amp;#039;s Day season. Stout-Centered Recipes:      Irish Beef Stout Stew     Spiced Beef Sandwich     All-Irish Black and Tan       Beer-Braised Pot Roast     Cheese and Mustard Dipping Sauce     Guinness-Marinated Bison Steak Sandwiches    "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38511/guinness-sales-continue-to-fall/>