WAS it a Freudian slip from the Taoiseach this week? Opening new offices for pharmaceutical company Janssen Cilag in Chapelizod, Dublin on Monday, Bertie Ahern said it was claimed that more than anything else history was written by disease. "Epidemics like the Black Plague decimated politicians right across Europe." Then he stopped. "I mean populations." There were indeed "a few black plagues round nowadays". Much laughter.