It’s D’unbelievable Pat tells of ‘explosive’ family past unearthed in popular RTE series
The 50-year-old also let slip he has turned down the producers of Dancing With The Stars.
The Killinascully star said he was astonished by what he found out about his ancestors as he traced his family tree.
He added: “The closest I have come to reality TV is Who Do You Think You Are? which is going out in autumn.
“It’s amazing. I can’t tell you what I found out but it was explosive is what I would say. They thought so too. I can’t tell you about it or I would be shot.
“There was a showbiz angle to one side of my family but there are four stories in the programme that we had never heard of in our family.
“One in particular was quite remarkable – two of them in fact. We are absolutely amazed.
“It would make the most amazing film because it was a big story.”
Shortt – one half of D’unbelievables with Jon Kenny – is winning rave reviews for his portrayal of gravedigger Mick Dowd in Martin Mcdonagh’s black comedy A Skull In Connemara at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.
The IFTA winner said the character was one of his favourites in a career spanning decades.
Shortt had previously worked with Mcdonagh, who won an Academy Award for his film – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – on two of his other plays, The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Lonesome West.
Shortt said: “Martin is great for plots. You are roaring laughing one minute and then, ‘Oh my God, is he going to?’
“The characters are very well formed but they are vicious buggers.
“They are really awful people. My character is probably the most vicious, if he is sparked, but he is the most downtrodden by the whole lot of them.”
A Skull In Connemara, which also stars Maria Mcdermottroe, Red Rock’s Patrick Ryan and Jarleth Tiuna, runs until September 1.
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There was a showbiz angle but there’s four stories we’d not heard of PAT SHORTT ON HIS FAMILY TREE