Is there a cut off age at which you are not allowed to have a mortgage

In the last few days I was going through paperwork of a friend of mine who is in very serious financial difficulties. The thread is not about getting him out of it as he is beyond redemption which will include his home,
He was 53 years when he took out the mortgages and he was a developer. He apparently lost a considerable amount of money on various Bank shares. He had investment property mortgages with Bank of Ireland as well as a home loan. His only income at the time (2007 & 2008) were profits from being a developer. He now has no income.
The mortgages were for in excess of €1m and were for 20 - 25 years which would mean that he would have been 73 in the case of 4 mortgages and 78 in the case of 1 mortgage.
I just think that this was another part of the irresponsible criteria that prevailed at the time.

He was:

A property developer
Managed to draw down several loans
Bought bank shares as an investment
Bought his own home
He was in his 50's when he borrowed

It's all come crashing down and it's the lender's fault?

People are living longer, so in the case of property investment mortgages it may have made sense for him to sign up until aged 73 or 78, if the investments made sense, as in the loans were being repaid out of rent. I presume his 'plan' was to get out earlier in the market that was only going up, but that didn't happen.