I screen peculiar-looking characters, to see if they're genuine (7)

I believe the answer is:

sincere

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'genuine' is the definition.
(sincere can mean authentic or genuine)

'i screen peculiar' is the wordplay.
'peculiar' is an anagram indicator (a peculiar or strange ordering of the letters).
'i'+'screen'='iscreen'
'iscreen' is an anagram of 'SINCERE'.

'looking characters to see if they're' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sincere that I've seen before include "Candid" , "natural?" , "True" , "Free from pretence" , "Not hypocritical" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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